people, So numerous as to be obliged to follow in Ranks of 4 & 6 abreast and brought up by a long Train of Carriages. The sorrow Visible in the Countenances, together with the peculiar solemnity, Surpass description, it was suppos'd that the Spectators & those that follow'd the corps amounted to 15000, som supposed 20,000. Note Capt Preston was tried for his Life on the affare of the above Octobr 24 1770. The Trial lasted 5 Days, but the Jury brought him in not Guilty.
William Tudor, editor, Deacon Tudor's Diary (Boston, 1896), 30-34.
152. The Boston Tea- Party (1773)BY JOHN ANDREWS
Andrews was for five years a selectman of Boston. The letters from which these extracts are taken were written to a relative, describing scenes most of which the writer had witnessed. The destruction of the tea was an act of violence, but no other means of preventing the sale of taxed tea could be found. — Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 91-92, and Memorial History of Boston, III, 44-51; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 135.
NOVEMBER 29th [1773]. Hall and Bruce arriv'd Saturday evening with each an hundred and odd chests of the detested Tea. What will be done with it, can t say : but I tremble for ye consequences should ye consignees still persist in their obstinacy and not consent to reship it. They have softened down so far as to offer it to the care of Council or the town, till such times as they hear from their friends in England, but am perswaded, from the present dispositions of ye people, that no other alternative will do, than to have it immediately sent back to London again. . . . Ye bells are ringing for a general muster, and a third vessel is now arriv'd in Nantasket road. Handbills are stuck up, calling upon Friends ! Citizens ! and Countrymen !
December 1st. Having just return'd from Fire Club, and am now, in company with the two Miss Masons and Mr. Williams of your place, at Sam. Eliot's, who has been dining with him at Colo Hancock's, and acquaints me that Mr. Palfrey sets off Express for New York and Philadelphia at five o'clock tomorrow morning, to communicate ye transactions of this town respecting the tea. . . . I acquainted you that Bruce and Hall had arrived, which was a mistake, as only Hall has arriv'd : which has caus'd ye most spirited and firm conduct to be observ'd that
