the Salvages in New England or neighboring thereabout at their wills & pleasures without lett or disturbaunce/ As also to haue libtie to hunt hauke fish or fowle in any place or places not now or hereafter by the English inhabited/ And the said President & Counsell do covennt & promyse to and with the said John Peirce and his Associate and others contracted wth as aforesaid his and their heires & assignes/ That vpon lawfull srvey to be had & made at the charge of the said Vndertakers & Planters and lawfull informacon geven of the bownde, meet(, and quantytie of Lands so as aforesaid to be by them chosen & possessed they the said President & Counsell vpon srrender of this inte graunt & Indenture and vpon reasonable request to be made by the said Vndertakers & Planters their heires & assignes within seaven Yeeres now next coming, shall and will by their Deede Indented and under their Comon seale graunt infeoffe & confirme all and eûy the said lande so sett out and bownded as aforesaid to the said John Peirce and his Associate and such as contract with them their heires & assignes in as large & beneficiall manner as the same are in theis inte graunted or intended to be graunted to all intente & purposes with all and eûy pticuler pryviledge & freedome resvacon & condicon with all dependances herein specyfied & graunted/ And shall also at any tyme within the said terme of Seaven Yeeres vpon request vnto the said President & Counsell made, graunt vnto them the said John Peirce and his Associate Vndertakers & Planters their heires & assignes, Letters & Graunt of Incorporacón by some vsuall & fitt name & tytle with Liberty to them and their successors from tyme to tyme to make orders Lawes Ordynaunce & Constitucons for the rule governement ordering & dyrecting of all psons to be transported & settled vpon the lande hereby graunted, intended to be graunted or hereafter to be granted and of the said Lande & proffitte thereby arrysing/ And in the meane tyme vntill such graunt made, Yt shalbe lawfull for the said John Peirce his Associate Vndertakers & Planters their heires & assignes by consent of the greater pt of them/ To establish such Lawes & ordynaunce as are for their better governem', and the same by such Officer or Officers as they shall by most voyces elect & choose to put in execucon/And lastly the said President and Counsell do graunt and agree to and with the said John 4TH s. - VOL. II. 21 Peirce and his Associate and others contracted with and ymployed as aforesaid their heires & assignes/ That when they haue planted the Lande hereby to them assigned & appoynted, That then it shalbe lawfull for them with the pryvitie & allowaunce of the President & Counsell as aforesaid to make choyce of to enter into and to haue an addition of fiftie acres more for eûy pson transported into New England with like resvacons condicons & pryviledges as are aboue graunted to be had and chosen in such place or places where no English shalbe then setled or inhabiting or haue made choyce of and the same entered into a booke of Act at the tyme of such choyce so to be made or within tenne Myles of the same (excepting on the opposite side of some great Navigable Ryver as aforesaid / And that it shall and may be lawfull for the said John Peirce and his Associate their heires and assignes from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter for their seuall defence & savetie to encounter expulse repell & resist by force of Armes aswell by Sea as by Land and by all wayes and meanes whatsoeû all such pson & psons as without the especiall lycense of the said President or Counsell and their successo or the greater pt of them shall attempt to inhabit within the seuall psinct & lymytte of their said Plantacon/ Or shall enterpryse or attempt at any tyme hereafter distruccon, Invation, detryment or annoyaunce to the said Plantacon/And the said John Peirce and his associate and their heires & assignes do covennt & promyse to & with the said President & Counsell and their successo's/ That they the said John Peirce and his Associate from tyme to tyme during the said Seaven Yeeres shall make a true Certificat to the said President & Counsell & their successors from the chief Officers of the places respectyvely of eûy pson transported & landed in New England or shipped as aforesaid to be entered by the Secretary of the said President & Counsell into a Register book for that purpose to be kept And the said John Peirce and his Associate Jointly and seually for them their heires & assignes do coveñnt promyse & graunt to and with the said President & Counsell and their successors That the psons transported to this their pticuler Plantacon shall apply themselves & their Labors in a large & competent mann to the planting setting making & procuring of good & staple comodyties in & vpon the said Land hereby graunted vnto them as Corne & silkgrasse hemp flaxe pitch & tarre sopeashes and potashes Yron Clapbord and other the like materialls/En witnes whereof the said President & Counsell haue to the one pt of this inte Indenture sett their seales * And to th'other pt hereof the said John Peirce in the name of himself and his said Associate haue sett to his seale geven the day and yeeres first aboue written/ Hamilton Fiml Gorges [On the Verso of the instrument is the following indorsement: -] Sealed and Delivered by my Lord Duke in the Psence of Edward Collmgwoods Brke * This word looks a little like seale, with a punctuation mark following it. The sense would seem to require the plural; there were originally six seals affixed to the instrument. - C. D. LETTERS FROM DR. WILLIAM DOUGLASS TO CADWALLADER COLDEN OF NEW YORK. [These letters were copied from the originals in the possession of the descendants of Cadwallader Colden. - J. SPARKS.] DEAR SIR, Boston, February 20th, 17. Last fall I wrote to you by Mr. Wilson, and sometime thereafter received the favour of yours by post. Our winters are a dull dead time of the year affording nothing worth communicating, else should have troubled you again before this date. You have the good fortune to have successively gentlemen of genius and learning for Governors, and more happy in being favoured with their countenance and friendship; my case in these particulars is the reverse. You complain of the practice of Physick being undervalued in your parts and with reason; we are not much better in that respect in this place; we abound with Practitioners, though no other graduate than myself, we have fourteen Apothecary shops in Boston; all our Practitioners dispense their own medicines. Colonel Burgess' design of coming over Governor, was the inducement that brought me hither from the prospect of very good business in Bristol; notwithstanding of that disappointment I have resolved to fix here, and ramble no more. I can live handsomely by the incomes of my Practice, and save some small matter. I reckon this place at present no better than a factory as to my interest, for here we have a great trade and many Strangers with whom my business chiefly consists. I have here practice amongst four sorts of People; some families pay me five pounds per annum each for advice sick or well, some few fee me as in Britain, but for the Native New-Englanders I am obliged to keep a day book of my Consultations advice and Visits, and bring them in a bill; others of the poorer sort I advise and visit without any expectation of fees. According to my promise I send you inclosed the History of the winds and weather in Boston for last year. I keep a diary of the same, and from thence have extracted those Tables and Observations; for the next year I hope to contrive a better method. I have no other instruments than the naked eye, pen, ink, and paper, I know of no Thermometer nor Barometer in this place. There is a pretty good Quadrant and Telescope in the College about four miles from this, and shall find some opportunity of taking the exact Latitude of this place, its longitude from London by some Eclipse of Jupiter's first sattellite, the variation and dipping of the Needle to be communicated. In my subsequent letters I may give you some scraps relating to the Natural History of this part of the Continent particularly of the Vegetable Kingdom; last year I made a collection of above seven hundred Plants within the compass of four or five miles from Boston, this year I think of extending ten or a dozen miles. Some small account of our copper, iron and lead ores with what improvements have here been made of them. We have no birds nor beasts peculiar to this spot of the continent, and therefore shall not pretend to give you any account of these things. I have a short history of our endemial, epidemical and incident diseases since my settling here, and shall give you (as a friend I may safely expose myself to) it rough, for it requires a long series of observations and a more penetrating genius than I had, to make them either intelligible or useful to others. There are other matters which perhaps you have not time to enquire into, or do not care to take notice of, v. g. the nature and constitution of this Country as a Body Politick; the history of our first grants and alterations of grants; limits of our Provinces; our Indians their different Tribes and numbers. The quantity and value in gross of our yearly import and export, our most kindly or |