King Philip's war, for that Sachem suspected them of being in league with the English, and the latter sharply suspected them of leaning toward Philip. The incidents of that war and their consequences inflicted a disastrous blow on the progress of Christianity among the Indians, from which it never fairly recovered. In May, 1690, the "Apostle" died, at the age of eighty-six years. His life had been one of great activity and usefulness. Not to him could be applied the words of S'adi, the Persian poet, "Alas! for him who has gone and has done no good work; The trumpet of march has sounded, and his load was not bound on him." We have reason to suppose that some of the old furniture in the Curtis House was looked upon and used by John Eliot, very often, during his long ministry in Roxbury, for the family of his brother-in-law were dwellers therein, during all that time. William Curtis was the ancestor of most of the persons of that name in the United States, and from him and Eliot have descended many persons of distinction in the various walks of life. They seem to have been a prolific and long-lived race. According to the genealogy, forty families of that stock, from 1632 to 1850, had an average of over five children each, and thirty-seven of the name lived to the average term of sixty-six years. events in its neighborhood, and stands as a precious relic of the heroic age of our republic; as such, its likeness ought to be preserved. For almost fifty years it was the witness, and possibly often the theatre of the wonderful labors of Eliot the Apostle. In its presence the great drama of a larger portion of New England's early history was enacted. By it filed some of the soldiers who went out from Boston from time to time, under Church and others, to fight hostile savages. It was a witness to the political confederacy of the New England settlements (excepting Rhode Island), for mutual defence, which lasted more than forty years. It was almost in sight of the Boston Churches wherein the great theological controversies took place, that shook New England society to its foundation. The trees on Boston Common could almost be seen from its doors, where fanatical Quakers of both sexes were whipped and hanged. It was a centre of deep anxiety during King Philip's War, when John Eliot and his friends labored to save the "praying Indians" from the wrath of suspecting colonists; whose kindred were plundered and slain by the savages led by the Wampanoag Sachem and Chief. It was a witness to the commotions when William and Mary were proclaimed monarchs of England, and Andros was driven from Boston by the exasperated and long-suffering people, as the despised representative of the hated Stuart dynasty. Its inmates saw, and perhaps participated in the preparations for subjugating the French on the north and east, who had coalesced with the savages in desolating the New England frontiers in King William's time; and into their ears were poured the horrid tales of the doings at Salem and elsewhere during the "Witchcraft" delusion and excitement. It was a witness to other preparations, from time to time, of the New England people to make war upon the French in the far Mary Curtis, a great-granddaughter of William, was the wife of Commodore Loring of the British navy. He owned an elegant house on Jamaica Plain and a considerable estate in Boston. Both were confiscated at the close of the Revolution, he and his family having departed with the British troops when they left Boston harbor for Halifax, in the spring of 1776. He went to England, where he received a pension from the British crown. His sons entered the royal army and navy, and did what harm they could to the Ameri-east; and its inmates were participants in the revocan "rebels." One of his grandsons became an English admiral, another an English baronet, and a third a colonel in the British army. Unlike many other buildings in this country, the Curtis House is not distinguished by any striking historic incidents that have occurred under its roof. But it has been a witness of great lutionary events that preceded and were coincident with the old War for Independence. These associations with remarkable events, its great age, and its perfection as a specimen of the second period of New England architecture, give to the Curtis House a rightful claim to a place. among the Historic Buildings of America. 1776, MARCH-CENTENNIAL MEMORIES-MARCH, 1876. VIII. THE EVACUATION OF BOSTON. THE MEDAL AWARDED BY THE CONGRESS TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. Washington anxiously desired to make an attack upon Boton, and dislodge the troops before large British reinforcements should arrive, when the prospects could not but become more gloomy. Yet a council of officers decided, seemingly on good grounds, that such an attempt could have no chance of success; and he was obliged, very reluctantly, to await events. In the meantime, Washing. ton labored under accumula ted difficulties in prosecuting the blockade of Boston. The scarcity of ammunition, notwithstanding every effort of the Congress, continued almost unabated; while the want of money, as well as of necessary equipments, was deeply felt on the advance of the rigorous season. With all his energy and firmness, he seems to have been exceedingly sensitive to troubles and opposition. He describes his situation as inexpressibly distressing-the winter approaching on an army at once naked and without a dollar; and declares that unless some remedy were devised, the force must be broken up. Amid all these distresses, it was necessary to keep up a good face towards the enemy, while many on the patriot side, exaggera ting both the numbers and efficiency of his troops, wondered he should remain inactive. These criticisms touched him sensibly; yet as a true patriot, he carefully concealed the explanation, which, reaching the opposite party, would have produced fatal effects. WE have, in its appropriate month, noticed the selection of George Washington as Commanderin-Chief of the Continental forces, June 15th, 1775, and his assumption of the command, July 3rd. Though the greater part of the army and its officers were from New England, Washington was received in the most cordial manner, and without the smallest symptom of jealousy; the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts even sending a committee to meet him at Springfield on the frontier, and escort him to Boston. He there found fourteen thousand five hundred men, able-bodied, zealous in the cause, and personally courageous, but destitute of almost every element of military organization. A great proportion wanted bayonets, and the alarming discovery was soon made that they had not above nine rounds of gunpowder. There were no tents, and clothes extremely deficient; there was neither commissary nor quartermaster-general. No combination existed between the troops drawn from different colonies; and the officers mostly chosen by the men, could exercise little authority. These evils were the more difficult to remedy, as the army, enlisted only for a short period, would disband in a few months, and be replaced by one composed of raw recruits. In these circumstances, An imminent danger now impended; December approached, when the troops, having been enlisted for only one year, were all entitled to return home. To this subject the commander earnestly solicited the attention of Congress, and on the 18th of October a committee of their number, Franklin, Lynch, and Harrison, arrived at his headquarters. Being persons of judgment, they arranged matters very satis factorily. Authority was given to levy twenty-six regiments, estimated at somewhat above arts twenty thousand men, independently of militia. Congress would not consent, however, to the enlistment for more than a year, nor would they, till the next January, agree to grant a bounty. Washington made the strongest appeals to the men, entreating them by every motive of honor and patriotism to adhere to those standards under which they had gloriously fought. But that ardent impulse which had called them to arms was now sensibly cooled; and when the time arrived, not above five thousand had engaged. These were afterward reinforced; but this dissolution of one army and assem blage of another, in the face of an enemy whose | was gradually improved; prize courts and regulaforce was constantly increasing, placed the commander in a very critical situation. He was also harassed from another quarter. The English in Boston, being straitened for provisions, sought to procure them by descents on different parts of the coast, treating the inhabitants, who were uniformly hostile, with very little ceremony. Falmouth suffered such a severe cannonade and bombardment as to reduce it to ashes, and it was reported or dreaded that a similar fate impended over the other seaports. Urgent applications were made to the commander-in-chief for aid; but he represented that his army was barely adequate to blockade Boston, and could not be broken down into detachments for local objects, which ought to be provided for by the militia of the districts. His views were sanctioned by Congress. He endeavored, however, to protect the shore by forming a small marine, placing troops on board the vessels; and .in a few weeks six schooners were fitted out. They were fortunate enough soon to capture a ship laden with military stores, most valuable for the supply of the army. In other respects this force was for some time inefficient, and its discipline very imperfect; but it tions were formed, and its privateering operations proved ultimately very harassing to the British. Meantime, General Gage remained inactive at Boston; a course generally condemned by historians as at once unaccountable and shameful. Yet, besides being by no means fully aware of Washington's weakness, he assigned other reasons which appear conclusive. Though he might have dislodged the Americans from their position, little would have been gained by marching into the interior of New England, a territory full of people animated with zeal in the cause of the Colonies, and which, though containing many small towns, offered no central or leading point of attack. must merely have moved from place to place, continually harassed by that desultory warfare in which they had shown themselves to excel. In the beginning of October he was recalled, without any expression of displeasure, yet probably under the impression of the disasters which the cause had sustained in his hands, and the hope that it might be more fortunate in those of another. The command then devolved upon Howe, who concurred with his predecessor as to the inexpediency of advancing into the interior of New England. He ation than in the words of Dr. Thacher, a surgeon of General Washington's army, as recorded in his Military Journal of the Revolutionary War: March 4th.-The object in view is now generally understood to be the occupying and fortifying the advantageous heights of Dorchester. A detachment of our troops is ordered to march for this purpose this evening; and our regiment, with several others, has received orders to march at four o'clock in the morning, to relieve them. We are favored with a full bright moon, and the night is remarkably mild and pleasant; the preparations are immense; more than three hundred loaded carts are in motion. By the great exertions of General Mifflin, our quartermaster-general, the requisite number of teams has been procured. The covering party of eight hundred men advance in front. Then follow the carts with the intrenching tools; after which, the working party of twelve hundred, commanded by General Thomas, of Kingston. Next in the martial procession are a train of carts, loaded with fascines and hay, screwed into large bundles of seven or eight hundred weight. The whole procession moves on in solemn silence, and with perfect order and regularity; while the continued roar of cannon serves to engage the attention and divert the enemy from the main object. FAC SIMILE OF AN OLD PRINT OF "BOSTON BESIEGED." sufficient to attack the city; but a council of officers decided, probably with reason, that such an attempt offered no chance of success. They 5th. At about four o'clock our regiment folproposed rather to seize and fortify the peninsular lowed to the heights of Dorchester as a relief point named Dorchester Neck, whence the harbor party. On passing Dorchester Neck, I observed would be in a great degree commanded, and the a vast number of large bundles of screwed hay, place, it was hoped, rendered untenable. To arranged in a line next the enemy, to protect our this he consented, though with great chagrin; troops from a raking fire, to which we should have and the execution of the movement was intrusted been greatly exposed, while passing and repassing. to General Ward. The British were amused two The carts were still in motion with materials; days by an incessant cannonade and bombard- some of them have made three or four trips. On ment,-till at nightfall of the 4th of March, the heights we found two forts in considerable General Thomas, with a working body of twelve forwardness, and sufficient for a defence against hundred, a covering force of eight hundred, and small arms and grape-shot. The amount of labor three hundred carts of materials, marched undis- performed during the night, considering the earth covered, and took possession of the most elevated is frozen eighteen inches deep, is almost increpart of the heights. dible. The enemy having discovered our works But we cannot better tell the story of the evacu- in the morning, commenced a tremendous can nonade from the forts in Boston, and from their the ranks and legs of the assail- twenty-four hours. Some of the British troops were seen to embark, and pass down toward the Castle last evening, to be in readiness, as was supposed, in conjunction with others to attack our works this morning; but a most violent storm came on in the night, and still continuing, obliges General Howe to abandon his enterprise, and thus has a kind Providence seen fit to frustrate a design, which must have been attended with immense slaughter and bloodshed. General Howe must now be sensible of his exposed situation, and be convinced of the immediate necessity of evacuating the town of Boston, if he would pre FAC-SIMILE OF AN OLD PRINT OF " BOSTON SEEN FROM DORCHESTER HEIGHTS." that the king's troops are preparing to evacuate the town; and that no attempt will be made to dispossess our people of the works, which we have constructed on Dorchester Heights. are the preparations for blood and slaughter! | vent the sacrifice of his fleet and army. Gracious God! if it be determined in thy provi- 7th. There are strong indications in Boston dence that thousands of our fellow-creatures shall this day be slain, let thy wrath be appeased, and in mercy grant, that victory be on the side of our suffering, bleeding country. The anxious day has closed; and the enemy has failed to molest us. From appearances, however, there are strong reasons to suppose that they have only postponed their meditated work till another day. It is presumed that the martial fire, which has been enkindled in the breasts of our soldiery, will not be extinguished during the night, and that they will not rest quietly under their disappointment. Early in the morning of the 6th, our regiment was relieved from its tour of duty, and I bade adieu to Dorchester Heights, without being called to dress a single wound. Not more than two or three men were killed or wounded during the 8th.-A flag of truce has come out of Boston with a message from the selectmen, acquainting General Washington that General Howe has come to the determination to evacuate the town, and that he would leave it standing, provided his army should be permitted to retire without being molested. At the same time intimating, as is reported, that in case he should be attacked by our army, the town should be set on fire in different places, in order to secure his retreat. We are unacquainted with the determination of his excellency respecting this proposition; but it is well known that he has been in favor of |