. New England; a human interest geographical reader. pastures for their horsesand cows, and on which they mowed grass to make awinter store of hay. The sheep and swine were turnedloose in the woods and on the barrens. Providence for a long time grew very slowly. In1740 it was much as it had been for a half centuryprevious — a long, straggling street by the waterfront, where, on summer evenings, the inhabitantssat in their doorways, the men smoking their claypipes, and they and all the rest fighting the swarms 238 New England of mosquitoes that rose from the neighboringmarshes. One of the most
. New England; a human interest geographical reader. pastures for their horsesand cows, and on which they mowed grass to make awinter store of hay. The sheep and swine were turnedloose in the woods and on the barrens. Providence for a long time grew very slowly. In1740 it was much as it had been for a half centuryprevious — a long, straggling street by the waterfront, where, on summer evenings, the inhabitantssat in their doorways, the men smoking their claypipes, and they and all the rest fighting the swarms 238 New England of mosquitoes that rose from the neighboringmarshes. One of the most noteworthy incidents in the historyof the city occurred in that time of irritation betweenthe colonies and the mother country just before theRevolution. In March, 1772, the British schoonerGas pee of eight guns took station in Narragansett Bay,and began stopping and searching all incoming ves-sels to prevent the smuggling of sugar and the evasionof paying taxes on it. This went much against thegrain of the colonists, who were insistent that they. The Rhode Island State House at Providence could not be taxed without their consent. The Britishadmiral at Boston assumed that the Rhode Islanderswere a set of lawless piratical people, and threatened The Smallest State 239 to hang any of them caught attempting to rescue avessel from the kmgs schooner. Early in June a sloop called the Hannah^ on herway to Providence, was chased by the Gas pee until thelatter ran aground a few miles below the city. Whenthe Hannah arrived at Providence and reported thepUght of the Gaspee, some of the citizens plotted to sur-prise the offending vessel. A number of long-boatswere collected, the oars were muffled, and a party offifty men embarked soon after ten oclock that they came in sight of the schooner and ap-proached her bows so as to avoid her guns. Thehail of the single man on watch was disregarded, thecrew bent to their oars, and in a few seconds the boatswere alongside. Now the h
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjohnsonclifton1865194, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910
