oo
small for the quick work necessary, other young men,
similarly circumstanced with myself, joined them in their
labors. The chests were drawn up by a tackle,--one man
bringing them forward, another putting a rope around them,
and others hoisting them to the deck and carrying them to
the vessel's side. The chests were then opened, the tea
emptied over the side, and the chests thrown overboard.
Perfect regularity prevailed during the whole transaction.
Although there were many people on the wharf, entire silence
prevailed,--no clamor, no talking. Nothing was meddled with
but the teas on board. After having emptied the whole, the
deck was swept clean, and everything put in its proper
place. An officer on board was requested to come up from the
cabin and see that no damage was done except to the tea. At
about the close of the scene, a man was discovered making
his way through the crowd with his pockets filled with tea.
He was immediately laid hold of, and his coat skirts torn
off, with their pockets, and thrown into the dock with the
rest of the tea. I was obliged to leave the town at once, as
it was of course known that I was concerned in the affair."

William Tudor, then a law student in the office of John Adams, and
acquainted with some of the members of the tea party, gives in his "Life
of James Otis," the following account of it:

"A band of eighteen or twenty young men (no one of whom was
in any disguise), who had been prepared for the event, went
by the Meeting House giving a shout. It was echoed by some
within; others exclaimed, 'the Mohawks are come!;' the
assembly broke up and a part of it followed this body of
young men to Griffin's wharf. Three different parties,
composed of trust-worthy persons, many of whom were in after
life among the most respectable citizens of the town, had
been prepared, in conformity to the secret resolves of the
political leaders, to act as circumstances should require.
They were seventy or eighty in all, and when every attempt
to have the tea returned had failed, it was immediately made
known to them, and they proceeded at once to throw the
obnoxious merchandise into the water. One, if not two of
these parties, wore a kind of Indian disguise. Two of these
persons, in passing over Fort Hill to the scene of
operations, met a British of