In 1656 the first Quaker preachers in the persons of Mary Fisher and Anne Austin[46] arrived at Boston. In consequence of the many wild rumours which had reached the Colony of the strange actions and teaching of the Quakers in England, they were detained on shipboard and their luggage searched for Quaker books or tracts. Several were found and these were ordered to be burned by the common executioner, and the women themselves were stripped and examined to see if they bore upon them marks which should prove them to be witches. They were detained in gaol for about five weeks and then deported again to Barbados. Their inhospitable reception did not in the least quench the missionary zeal of the early Friends, and very shortly after, eight more arrived on the shores of New England, who, after two days’ examination, were sent back to England by the ship on which they came. The authorities of Boston then passed a law inflicting a fine of £100 on any shipmaster who knowingly conveyed a Quaker to the Colonies. This law failed as a deterrent, many Quakers obtaining an entrance to the Colonies, and still fiercer became the persecution. A strengthening of the law was deemed necessary and it was further decreed: What Quaker so ever shall arrive from foreign Parts or Parts adjacent shall be forth with committed to the House of Correction; and at their entrance to be severely whipp’d, and by the master thereof to be kept constantly at Work, and none suffered to speak or converse with them.—If any Person shall knowingly Import any Quakers Books or Writings concerning their Devilish opinions, shall pay for every such Book or Writing the Sum of £5. who soever shall disperse or conceal any such Book or Writing and it be found with him or her shall forfeit or pay £5—and that if any Person within this Colony shall take upon them to defend the Heretical opinions of the said Quakers or any of their Books, &c., shall be fined for the first time 40/—If they shall persist in the same and again defend it the second time £4.—If they shall again so defend they shall be committed to the House of Correction till there be convenient Passage to send them out of the Land, being sentenced by the Court of Assistants to Banishment [1656].