Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880Wheildon, William W. (William Willder)
History
Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880
Wheildon, William W. (William Willder)
Boston (Mass.) -- Description and travel; Boston (Mass.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
With respect to the contents of this first newspaper, the introductory
paragraph is as follows:--
"_It is designed that the countrey shall be furnished once a month_
(_or if any Glut of_ Occurrences _happen oftener_,) _with an Account
of such considerable things as have arrived unto our Notice._"
The editor, it is said, will take pains to get a faithful relation of
things, and hopes observers will communicate of such matters as fall under
their notice; and then states what is proposed in an editorial way: first,
that memorable occurrences may not be neglected or forgotten: second, that
people may better understand public affairs; and third, "_that something
may be done towards the_ Curing, _or at least the_ Charming _of that_
Spirit of Lying, which prevails among us," &c. This, probably, is one of
the passages referred to by the authorities as "reflections of a very high
nature." And, in addition to what has been said, "the Publisher of these
Occurrences" proposes to correct false reports, and expose the "First
Raiser" of them, and thinks "_none will dislike this Proposal, but such as
intend to be guilty of so villainous a Crime_."
Then follows the news, or "Occurrences." Mention is made of a
thanksgiving appointed by the Christian Indians of Plymouth; the
husbandmen find no want of hands, "which is looked upon as a merciful
Providence," being a favorable season; the Indians have stolen two
children, aged nine and eleven years, from Chelmsford; an old man of
Watertown hung himself in his cow-house, having lately lost his wife, and
thereupon "the devil took advantage of the melancholy which he thereupon
fell into." Epidemical fevers and agues and small-pox are next spoken of:
of small-pox, three hundred and twenty had died in Boston, and "children
were born full of the distemper." A large fire is spoken of near the Mill
Creek,--twenty houses burned; and on the 16th and 17th of this instant
(September, 1690), a fire broke out near the South Meeting-house, which
consumed five or six houses; a young man perished in the flames, and one
of the best printing-presses was lost. Report of a vessel bound to
Virginia, put into Penobscot, where the Indians and French butchered the
master and most of the crew.
The next is a longer article in relation to the expedition to Canada under
Gen. Winthrop, its failure, and a variety of Indian complications. The
editor says, "'Tis possible we have not so exactly related the
Circumstances of this business, but the Account is as near exactness as
any that could be had, in the midst of many various reports about it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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