t contemporary, and in fact the best general authority for this
event is the "Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston." This
was published by the town for circulation in England, and is still
extant in Doggett's reprint of 1849, and in Kidder's of 1870. In a
report of a special committee the town rehearses both the events of the
Massacre and the proceedings which followed it. Seventy-two pages of
depositions are appended to the report of the committee: no other single
event of those days is made so vivid to us.

The Massacre was preceded by minor disturbances. On the second of March,
1770, insults having passed between a soldier and a ropemaker, the
former came to the ropewalk, "and looking into one of the windows said,
_by God I'll have satisfaction!_ ... and at last said he was not afraid
of any one in the ropewalks. I"--thus deposes Nicholas Feriter, of
lawful age, "stept out of the window and speedily knocked up his heels.
On falling, his coat flew open, and a naked sword appeared, which one
John Willson, following me out, took from him, and brought into the
ropewalks." The soldier returned a second and a third time, each time
with more men from his regiment. At the last they were "headed by a tall
negro drummer, with a cutlass chained to his body, with which, at first
rencounter," says valiant Nicholas, "I received a cut on the head, but
being immediately supported by nine or ten more of the ropemakers, armed
with their wouldring sticks, we again beat them off."

For three days there was, among the two regiments stationed in the town,
anger which the inhabitants endeavored to allay by the discharge of the
ropemaker who gave the original insult, and by agreements made with the
commanding officer, Colonel Dalrymple. But, as afterwards appeared,
there were warnings of further trouble. Cautions were given to friends
of the soldiers not to go on the streets at night. The soldiers and
their women could not refrain from dark hints of violence to come. It is
even possible that violence was concerted. On the night of the fifth a
number of soldiers assembled in Atkinson Street. "They stood very still
until the guns were fired in King Street, then they clapped their hands
and gave a cheer, saying, 'This is all that we want'; they then ran to
their barracks and came out again in a few minutes, all with their arms,
and ran toward King Street." "I never," so runs other testimony, "saw
men or dogs so greedy for their pre