I OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 125 only on those points which the public good demanded. Instead of monopolizing the trade of the colony, which his superior wealth and official power would have rendered very easy, governor Woolston acted in the most liberal spirit to all around him. With the exception of the Anne, which was built by the colony, the council had decided, in some measure contrary to his wishes, though in strict ac cordance with what was right, that all the vessels were the private property of Mark. After this decision, the governor formally conveyed the Mermaid and the Abraham to the state ; the former to be retained principally as a cruiser and a packet, while the last was in daily use as a means of con veying articles and passengers, from one island to the other. The Neshamony was presented, out and out, to Betts, who turned many a penny with her, by keeping her running through the different passages, with freight, &,c. ; going from plantation to plantation, as these good people were in the practice of calling their farms. Indeed, Bob did little else, until the governor, seeing his propensity to stick by the water, and ascertaining that the intercourse would justify such an investment, determined to build him a sloop, in order that he might use her as a sort of packet and market-boat, united. A vessel of about forty-five tons was laid down accordingly, and put into the water at the end of six months, that was just the sort of craft suited to Bob s wishes and wants. In the mean time, the honest fellow had resigned his seat in the council, feeling that he was out of his place in such a body, among men of more or less education, and of habits so much superior and more refined than his own. Mark did not oppose this step in his friend, but rather encouraged it; being persuaded nothing was gained by forcing upon a man duties he was hardly fitted to discharge. Self-made men, he well knew, were sometimes very useful ; but he also knew that they must be first made. The name of this new sloop was the Martha, being thus called in compliment to her owner s sober-minded, indus trious and careful wife. She (the sloop, and not Mrs. Betts) was nearly all cabin, having lockers forward and aft, and was fitted with benches in her wings, steamboat fashion. Her canvas was of light duck, there being very
