Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/40

 XXXll INTRODUCTION.

only the thirteenth on the list, she must have joined her husband in Charlestown soon after.

" Many people arrived sick of the scurvy, which also increased much after their arrival, for want of houses, and by reason of wet lodging in their cottages, &c. Other distempers also prevailed ; and, although [the] people were generally very loving and pitiful, yet the sickness did so prevail, that the whole were not able to tend the sick, as they should be tended ; upon which many perished and died and were buried about the Town Hill." * In addition to all this trouble, their provisions ran short, and, as it was too late in the season to think of raising any more, they were obliged to despatch a ship to Ireland to buy some. The hot weather, the want of running water, and the general sickness, which they'attributed to the situation, made them discontented. Although they had intended to remain and found a town, they moved away, scattering about the neigh- borhood, the majority of them, including the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and all the Assistants except Mr. Nowell, going across the river to Boston, at the invitation of Mr. Blaxton, who had until then been its only white inhabitant. I

They did not remain long in Boston, as they were apprehensive that the Indians would attack them, now that they were dispersed and so much reduced by sickness ; but looked about for a suitable situation for a fortified town, and in December, 1630, decided upon the spot which was after- wards called Cambridge.:!: Fortunately, the winter of 1630 was mild, § or their suffering would have been intense. As

t Ibid., pp. 379-81. Budington, p. 18. { Winthrop's New England, Vol. i. p. 39. § Wood's "New-England's Prolpea," p. 5.
 * Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, pp. 378-g.

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