At a session of the General Court, at Boston, the 10th of the eight month, 1648, "For preventing ferry men's Damage by Persons not paying, &c., it shall be lawful for any Ferry man to demand and Receive his due before his Boat put off from the Shore, nor shall he be bound to pass over any that shall not give satisfaction, & any Ferry Man may refuse any wampum not stringed or Unmerchantable and such persons whether Horse or Foot which are passage free by Order of the Court must show something sufficient for their Discharge, or else pay as others do, except Magistrates and Deputies, &c., who are generally known to be free." And again, Oct. 18, the Court ordered that "all 'payable peag' should be 'entire without breaches, both the white and the black, suitably strung in eight known parcels, 1_d._, 3_d._, 12_d._, 5_s._, in white; and 2_d._, 6_d._, 2-6_d._, and 10_s._, in black.' The Court also ordered that for transporting officers in the colony service, the ferrymen should be allowed £4 per annum for the past, and £6 per annum for the time to come." PEAG, OR INDIAN MONEY. "Peag," or "wampum," or "wampumpeag," simply means stringed shells of a peculiar kind, or Indian money; and this, it seems, came early into use, as Hubbard says, "The people of New Plymouth, in the year 1627, began trade with the Dutch at Manhados, and there they had the first knowledge of Wampumpeag, and their acquaintance therewith occasioned the Indians of those parts to learn to make it." Hutchinson thinks the New England Indians, prior to this time, had not "any instrument of commerce;" and speaks of the Narragansetts as coining money, making pendants and bracelets, and also tobacco pipes. There seems, however, to have been among the Massachusetts settlers some other kinds of money in use, as, in 1635, the court ordered that brass farthings shall be discontinued, and that musket-balls shall pass for farthings. PENNY FERRY. Penny Ferry, across the Mystic River, where the Malden Bridge now is, was established by the town in April, 1640, when it was voted, "That Philip Drinker should keep a ferry at the Neck of Land, with a sufficient boat, and to have 2_d._ a single person, and a penny a piece when there go any more." It was not a source of any profit to the town for many years. In 1651, the Penny Ferry was granted for a year to Philip Knight, who appears to have had the income of it for taking care of it, he agreeing "to attend the ferry carefully, and not to neglect it, that there be no just complaint."