This kind of grass

interior, and covered large tracts. grows best in a sandy soil; it rises to the height of about two feet, and is better calculated for brooms than for fodder early in the spring, however, when it begins to grow, it is tender and wholesome food for all kinds of stock. Notwithstanding the many causes which have operated to diminish the natural fertility of the soil, there are many hundreds of acres under good improvement, which produce heavy growths of hay, corn, and the common culinary vegetables. There are some excellent farms and fine gardens, in which some of the luxuries, as well as many of the necessaries, of life are annually raised. The cultivation of the grape has, within a few years, attracted the attention of several agriculturists, and it has been proved that both the soil and climate are admirably adapted to the cultivation of this delicious fruit. Hundreds of bushels of the Isabella, and considerable quantities of other kinds, are annually produced.

The wood, that grew here, was of the same kind as that found on the adjacent parts of the continent. A great proportion of it was oak, of an uncommonly hard and firm texture. It was used for the frames of houses and other mechanical purposes: some buildings, now standing, framed of this wood, appear to be as sound as ever.

The face of the island is generally level; there are some elevations but no remarkably high hills. There is a considerable number of ponds, some pretty extensive, and well supplied with fish, others small, and serving only as watering places for cattle, or resorts of small shore birds, which are numerous. There are also many swamps, some containing from 100 to 300 acres; those situated near the town have been cleared, and made into valuable

meadow land. A considerable quantity of good salt meadow is found bordering on the numerous creeks. But few rocks and not many stony places are to be met with. Among the minerals, found on the island, may be named large beds of blue clay, and also of peat, as abounding. Boulders of granite are common on the hills; specimens of bog iron are found in one location. Fragments of feldspar and porphyry are common. Pebbles of jasper are found on the seashore, and handsome specimens of amber are occasionally picked up there. Fossil shells are often found at considerable depths, when sinking wells.

The inquiry is frequently made by strangers, whether the island increases or decreases in size. On the authority of long and accurate observation it may be stated, that there has been a decrease, and in some places to a considerable extent. On the east and south some hundreds of acres have been washed away, and, if we may credit the accounts of our ancestors, a greater quantity from the north.

If the decrease were in regular proportions from year to year, it might be ascertained, by a simple calculation, at what time the whole island would become extinct. But this cannot be done; for in some years there is even an increase, in others but little loss, in others again, in consequence of hard and repeated storms, such has been the waste, that the final destruction would seem to be the easy work of a very few centuries.

CHAPTER II.

THE first emigration of the whites, or English, to the island being one of the most interesting parts of this account, we shall endeavor to be as explicit on the subject as the nature of the work, and the means possessed, will admit. Our information, however, falls far short of what is necessary to form a complete history.

Thomas Macy being the first settler, it will not be deemed a needless digression, to state what we know of his early biography. In the year 1640, being then a young man, he moved with his family from the town of Chilmark, in Wiltshire, England, and settled in Salisbury, county of Essex, in Massachusetts. He lived here in good repute twenty years, where he acquired a good interest, consisting of a tract of land of 1,000 acres, a good house, and considerable stock. But when this part of the country became more thickly settled by the English, dissensions arose among the people in regard to religion and religious denominations. Notwithstanding the purpose of their emigration from the mother country was that they might enjoy liberty of conscience in religious matters, they themselves commenced the work of persecution, and enacted laws to restrain people from worshipping God according to the dictates of their consciences. Among other restraints, a law was made, that any person, who should entertain one of the people called Quakers, should pay a fine of five pounds for every hour during which he

so entertained them. Thomas Macy subjected himself to the rigor of this law by giving shelter to four Quakers, who stopped at his house in a rain storm. This act was soon sounded abroad, for, being influenced by a sense of duty, he had used no means to conceal it. Being cited to answer for the offence, he addressed the following letter to the court, the original of which is preserved in the cabinet of the Nantucket Athenæum :

"This is to entreat the honoured Court not to be offended because of my non-appearance. It is not from my slighting the authority of the honoured Court, nor fear to answer the case; but have been for some weeks past very ill, and am so at present; and notwithstanding my illness, yet I, desirous to appear, have done my utmost endeavor to hire a horse, but cannot procure one at present. I, being at present destitute, have endeavored to purchase one, but at present cannot attain it—but I shall relate the truth of the case, as my answer would be to the honoured Court-and more cannot be proved, nor so much. On a rainy morning, there came to my house, Edward Wharton and three men more; the said Wharton spoke to me, saying that they were travelling eastward, and desired me to direct them in the way to Hampton; and never saw any of the men afore except Wharton, neither did I enquire their names or what they were; but by their carriage I thought they might be Quakers, and said I so and therefore desired them to pass on, in their

1

1 Two of these men were William Robinson, merchant, of London, and Marmaduke Stephenson, of Yorkshire, England. They were hanged in Boston, on the 27th of the 10th month, 1659, for supporting the Christian principle, as believed by the people called Quakers.

way-saying to them, I might possibly give offence in entertaining them, and soon as the violence of the rain ceased, (for it rained hard,) they went away, and I never saw them since. The time that they staid in the house was about three quarters of an hour; they spoke not many words, in the time, neither was I at leisure to talk with them; for I came home wet to the skin, immediately afore they came to the house; and I found my wife sick in bed. If this satisfy not the honoured Court, I shall submit to their sentence. I have not willingly offended-I am ready to serve and obey you in the Lord.

27 of 8th mo. '59, [1659.]

THOMAS MACY."

He could now live no longer in peace, and in the enjoyment of religious freedom, among his own nation; he chose therefore to remove his family to a place unsettled by the whites, to take up his abode among savages, where he could safely imitate the example and obey the precepts of our Saviour, and where religious zeal had not yet discovered a crime in hospitality, nor the refinements of civil law, a punishment for its practice. In the fall of 1659, he embarked in an open boat, with his family and such effects as he could conveniently take with him, and, with the assistance of Edward Starbuck, proceeded along the shore to the westward. When they came to Boston bay, they crossed it, passed round Cape Cod, and extended their course by the shore until they were abreast of the island to the northward, thence they crossed the sound, and landed on Nantucket without accident. Thus we see, that the same persecuting spirit, that drove our forefathers from England, drove Thomas Macy from our orefathers; that the same undaunted courage, which