NEW ENGLAND GAZETTEER.

gives free access to the neighboring towns by land, on the south side, on
the northwest and northeast. Two constant fairs are kept for daily
trafique thereunto. The form of this town is like a hearts naturally sit-
uated for fortifications, having two hills on the frontier part thereof next
the sea, the one well fortified on the superficies thereof, with store of
great artillery well mounted. The other hath a very strong battery built
of whole timber, and filled with earth; at the descent of the hill, in the
extreme poynt thereof betwixt these two strong arms lies a cove or bay,
on which the chief part of this town is built, overtopped with a third
hill; all these like overtopping towers, keep a constant watch to see the
approach of foreign dangers, being furnished with a beacon and loud
babbling guns to give notice by their redoubled echo to all the sister
towns. The chief edifice of this city-like town is crowded on the sea-
banks, and wharfed out with great labour and cost; the buildings beau-
tiful and large, some fairly set forth with brick tile, stone and slate, and
orderly placed with semely streets, whose continual enlargement pre-
sage th some sumptuous city. But now behold the admirable acts of
Christ, at this his people’s landing; the hideous thickets in this place
were such that wolves and bears nurst up their young from the eyes of
all beholders, in those very places where the streets are full of girls and
boys, sporting up and down with continued concourse of people. Good
store of shipping—ift-hertr'yearly omlTT ancT~sonre wery fair ones. This
town is the very mart of the land; Dutch, French, and Portugal Is come
here to trafique.”

Present condition of Boston*

Perhaps at no period since the settlement of Boston has its prosperity
been so flattering as for the last seven years. It is true that Boston in-
creased in population and wealth with great rapidity during the wars in
Europe, from 1794 to 1807. But that growth was unnatural and contin-
gent; it depended solely on the caprice of the belligerent powers, who
viewed us rather as servants to their necessities, than with respect.

The present-state of...things., is altogether different. The world is at
peace. We lookihr nQLhesieged__city to supply with bread, neither do we
seek to run the gauntlet of a blockading squadron to furnish a starving
country with the growth and produce of its own colonies. We now rely
on our own resources—agriculture, manufactures, the fisheries, and com-
merce with all nations with whom we can exchange our commodities at
fair prices. So long as we are blessed with union, good schools, good
laws, and with all those moral, religious and charitable institutions, which
tend to make mankind wiser and better, our city, under Providence, will
continue on in the forward path to prosperity and happiness.

Th% location of Boston always gave it the command of a greater coast-