“In 1790 the whole number of inhabitants was 4619. They for the most part are a robust and enterprising people, mostly seamen and mechanics. It is no strange thing to see the same man occupy the station of a merchant, at other times that of a husbandman or of a blacksmith or of a cooper or of a number of other occupations.” 1792--By Zaccheus Macy, dated Nantucket, 15th of 5th mo. 1792 (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll.) “In the year 1659 Thomas Macy removed with his family from Salisbury to the west end of the island to a place called Madakit harbour. Thither came four from Martha’s Vineyard for the sake of gunning and lived with them as boarders. At that time there were near 3000 Indians on Nantucket. They were willing to sell their land and the English went on purchasing, beginning at the west end of the island.” Further on, Mr. Macy, alluding to the then (1792) status of affairs on the island, states: “A great many of our most substantial men, lured by the hope of large bounties, have moved from the island, some to England, some to France and others to Halifax, where they carry on the whale fishery. This is a great damage to us. If these persons had carried away with them their part of the poor it would have lightened our burden, for we now have 215 widows, of whom not thirty are able to support themselves without the assistance of friends and neighbors and some are maintained by the town. We have besides a great number of poor, but we have a considerable number of able and industrious men who carry on the whale fishery.” 1801--Josiah Quincy made a journey through the southeast parts of New England in 1801. He kept a diary which is most interesting reading. (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc.) The following are brief quotations from it: “The town of Nantucket appears from the harbor as large as Salem but exhibits no marks of elegance or splendour. With one or two exceptions they (the houses) are built wholly of wood and have but two stories. By far the greater number are without paint and with those which have it, red is the predominant color. They are built generally upon the street. The almost total want of trees, houses and fences in the interior part of the island makes the road very uninteresting. Once in every two or three miles a single farmhouse appears, surrounded by half a dozen dwarf cherry trees. Such an assemblage is a wood on Nantucket, where there is not a tree of native growth. We dined with Dr. and Mrs. Easton.” 1807--A writer, under date of Aug. 1, 1807, (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll.) states: