. King's handbook of Boston harbor. I fear. He slew one of his men in thestreet with a rapier-thrust; presented a richsedan-chair to Governor Win-throp ; and then fared away on athree-years cruise, in which hecaptured many prizes. Then he * returned, to become a solid manof Boston, and presented to thetown six great bells, doubtlessoriginally intended for some Span-ish-American convent. Betweenthese fearless sea-kings and thefreebooters whose bones rattledabove Nixs Mate there was aworld-wide difference, to be Kidd had been broughtinto Boston, a captive, and sentthence to London,
. King's handbook of Boston harbor. I fear. He slew one of his men in thestreet with a rapier-thrust; presented a richsedan-chair to Governor Win-throp ; and then fared away on athree-years cruise, in which hecaptured many prizes. Then he * returned, to become a solid manof Boston, and presented to thetown six great bells, doubtlessoriginally intended for some Span-ish-American convent. Betweenthese fearless sea-kings and thefreebooters whose bones rattledabove Nixs Mate there was aworld-wide difference, to be Kidd had been broughtinto Boston, a captive, and sentthence to London, to be put todeath; but the fame of his ex-ploits and gains led many anhonest sailor astray, and led himto a dreary death on this surf-beaten shore. A hundred years ago the isl-and was large enough to be usedfor pasturing sheep, and its chiefbluff bore the name of North-End Point. It is certainly astrange coincidence that Nixsand Bird, the two gibbet-bearers,are the only islands in the harbor to be washed away and blotted out, as if. i78 KINGS HANDBOOK OF BOSTON HARBOR. kindly Nature refused to endure their presence. A curving shoal runs halfa mile south-westward from the Nixs Mate beacon, and would be the mostdangerous point in the Bay, were it not for the high black pyramid. The beacon was erected under the auspices, and at the suggestion, ofthe Boston Marine Society, and formed the theme of many communicationsbetween that organization and the National Government. One of our cutsshows the island as it appeared many years ago, before the last of theaborigines had vanished from the scene. The approximate date when thelast Massachusee canoe disappeared cannot be found; but in 1853 EdwardEverett narrated the following incident, which is at least ben trovato :A few days ago, as I saw in the newspapers, two light birch-bark canoesappeared in Boston Harbor, containing each a solitary Indian. Theyseemed as they approached to gaze in silent wonder at the city of thetriple hills, rising
Size: 970px × 2576px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorkingmose, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookyear1882
