ary
passage, being but seven weeks and two days between Plymouth and
Nantasket."[158]

The Admiral and the General had been welcomed with all honor. The
provincial Secretary, with two members of the Council, conducted them to
town amid salutes from the batteries of Copp's Hill and Fort Hill, and
the Boston militia regiment received them under arms; after which they
were feasted at the principal tavern, and accompanied in ceremony to the
lodgings provided for them.[159] When the troops were disembarked and
the tents pitched, curious townspeople and staring rustics crossed to
Noddle's Island, now East Boston, to gaze with wonder on a military
pageant the like of which New England had never seen before. Yet their
joy at this unlooked-for succor was dashed with deep distrust and
jealousy. They dreaded these new and formidable friends, with their
imperious demeanor and exacting demands. The British officers, on their
part, were no better pleased with the colonists, and one of them,
Colonel King, of the artillery, thus gives vent to his feelings: "You'll
find in my Journal what Difficultyes we mett with through the Misfortune
that the Coloneys were not inform'd of our Coming two Months sooner, and
through the Interestedness, ill Nature, and Sowerness of these People,
whose Government, Doctrine, and Manners, whose Hypocracy and canting,
are insupportable; and no man living but one of Gen'l Hill's good Sense
and good Nature could have managed them. But if such a Man mett with
nothing he could depend on, altho' vested with the Queen's Royal Power
and Authority, and Supported by a Number of Troops sufficient to reduce
by force all the Coloneys, 'tis easy to determine the Respect and
Obedience her Majesty may reasonably expect from them." And he gives it
as his conviction that till all the colonies are deprived of their
charters and brought under one government, "they will grow more stiff
and disobedient every Day."[160]

It will be seen that some coolness on the part of the Bostonians was not
unnatural. But whatever may have been the popular feeling, the
provincial authorities did their full part towards supplying the needs
of the new-comers; for Dudley, with his strong Tory leanings, did not
share the prevailing jealousy, and the country members of the Assembly
were anxious before all things to be delivered from war-parties. The
problem was how to raise the men and furnish the supplies in the least
possible time. The action of