sted every effort, through a
period of weeks, to procure the return of the tea-ships to England. To
this act Great Britain replied by various penal regulations and
reconstructive acts of government. She quartered troops in Boston; she
made the juries, sheriffs and judges of the colony dependent on the
royal officers; she ordered capital offenders to be tried in Nova Scotia
or England; she endeavoured completely to control or to abolish
town-meetings; and finally, by the so-called "Boston Port Bill," she
closed the port of Boston on the 1st of June 1774. Not even a ferry, a
scow or other boat could move in the harbour. Marblehead and Salem were
made ports of entry, and Salem was made the capital. But they would not
profit by Boston's misfortune. The people covenanted not to use British
goods and to suspend trade with Great Britain. From near neighbours and
from distant colonies came provisions and encouragement. In October
1774, when General Gage refused recognition to the Massachusetts general
court at Salem, the members adjourned to Concord as the first provincial
congress. Finally came war, with Lexington and Bunker Hill, and
beleaguerment by the colonial army; until on the 17th of March 1776 the
British were compelled by Washington to evacuate the city. With them
went about 1100 Tory refugees, many of them of the finest families of
the city and province. The evacuation closed the heroic period of
Boston's history. War did not again approach the city.

The years from 1776 to the end of "town" government in 1822 were marked
by slow growth and prosperity. Commerce and manufactures alike took
great impetus. Direct trade with the East Indies began about 1785, with
Russia in 1787. A Boston vessel, the "Columbia" (Captain Robert Gray),
opened trade with the north-west coast of America, and was the first
American ship to circumnavigate the globe (1787-1790). In 1805 Boston
began the export of ice to Jamaica, a trade which was gradually extended
to Cuba, to ports of the southern states, and finally to Rio de Janeiro
and Calcutta (1833), declining only after the Civil War; it enabled
Boston to control the American trade of Calcutta against New York
throughout the entire period. But of course it was far less important
than various other articles of trade in the aggregate values of
commerce. It was Boston commerce that was most sorely hurt by the
embargo and non-importation policy of President Jefferson. In
manufactures the foun