:

"Lodge met and adjourned. N.B.--The consignees of the tea
took the brethren's time."

And on the eventful 16th of December:

"The Lodge met and closed on account of the few members in
attendance. Adjourned until to-morrow evening."

Three different parties, one or two of whom were disguised, had been
prepared beforehand for this event, by the leaders. Certain it is that
there were several squads in different parts of the town, who disguised
themselves at their own or their neighbors' houses, and who then
rendezvoused at points previously designated, before going to the wharf.
Quite an Indian village was improvised at the junction of Hollis and
Tremont Streets. John Crane, Joseph Lovering, and the Bradlees occupied
opposite corners of this locality, the house and carpenter shop of Crane
adjoining the residence of the famous Dr. Mather Byles. Captain Thomas
Bolter and Samuel Fenno, also of the tea party, were near neighbors of
Crane, and like him, were carpenters. Joseph Lovering, Jr., related
that he held the light for Crane and some of his neighbors, to disguise
themselves, in Crane's shop. The four brothers Bradlee, and a
brother-in-law, were prepared for the occasion at their house opposite.

* * * * *

Perhaps the best contemporaneous account of the affair is the following,
from the "Massachusetts Gazette," of December 23:

"Just before the dissolution of the meeting," says the
'Gazette,' a number of brave and resolute men, dressed in
the Indian manner, approached near the door of the assembly,
and gave a war-whoop, which rang through the house, and was
answered by some in the galleries, but silence was
commanded, and a peaceable deportment enjoined until the
dissolution. The Indians, as they were then called, repaired
to the wharf, where the ships lay that had the tea on board,
and were followed by hundreds of people, to see the event of
the transactions of those who made so grotesque an
appearance. The Indians immediately repaired on board
Captain Hall's ship, where they hoisted out the chests of
tea, and when on deck stove them and emptied the tea
overboard. Having cleared this ship, they proceeded to
Captain Bruce's, and then to Captain Coffin's brig. They
applied themselves so dexterously to the destruction of this
commodity, that in the space of three hours they broke up
three hund