rows homeward,
and soon dispersed quietly to their homes.

It is almost incredible that the identity of the parties to this
expedition was kept a secret until long after the Revolution. Although
the British authorities made the most strenuous efforts, and offered
huge rewards for the detection of the culprits, not one was discovered
until after the Colonies had thrown off the royal yoke, when they came
boldly forward, and boasted of their exploit.

After the destruction of the "Gaspee," the colonists in no way openly
opposed the authority of the king, until the time of those stirring
events immediately preceding the American Revolution. Little was done
on the water to betoken the hatred of the colonists for King George.
The turbulent little towns of Providence and Newport subsided, and the
scene of revolt was transferred to Massachusetts, and particularly to
Boston. In the streets of Boston occurred the famous massacre, and at
the wharves of Boston lay the three ships whose cargo aroused the ire
of the famous Boston tea-party.

To almost every young American the story of the Boston tea-party is as
familiar as his own name,--how the British Parliament levied a tax
upon tea, how the Colonies refused to pay it; and determined to use
none of the article; how British merchants strove to force the tea
upon the unwilling colonists, and how the latter refused to permit the
vessels to unload, and in some cases drove them back to England. At
Philadelphia, Annapolis, Charleston, Newport, and Providence,
disturbances took place over the arrival of the tea-ships; but at
Boston the turbulence was the greatest.

The story of that dramatic scene in the great drama of American
revolution has been told too often to bear repetition. The arrival of
three ships laden with tea aroused instant indignation in the New
England city. Mass meetings were held, the captains of the vessels
warned not to attempt to unload their cargoes, and the consignees were
terrified into refusing to have any thing to do with the tea.

In the midst of an indignation meeting held at the Old South Church, a
shrill war-whoop resounded from one of the galleries. The startled
audience, looking in that direction, saw a person disguised as a
Mohawk Indian, who wildly waved his arms and shouted,--

"Boston Harbor, a tea-pot to-night! Hurrah for Griffin's Wharf."

In wild excitement the meeting adjourned, and the people crowded out
into the streets. Other Indians we