ed him with snowballs, pieces of ice, and whatever they
could lay their hands upon.

"The guard were then called, and in marching to the Custom House,
they encountered a band of the populace, led by a mulatto named
Attucks, who brandished their clubs and pelted them with snowballs.
The maledictions, the imprecations, the execrations of the
multitude, were horrible. In the midst of a torrent of invective
from every quarter, the military were challenged to fire. The
populace advanced to the points of their bayonets.

"The soldiers appeared like statues; the cries, the howlings, the
menaces, the violent din of bells still sounding the alarm,
increased the confusion and the horrors of these moments; at length
the mulatto Attucks and twelve of his companions, pressing forward,
environed the soldiers and striking their muskets with their clubs,
cried to the multitude: 'Be not afraid, they dare not fire; why do
you hesitate, why do you not kill them, why not crush them at
once?'

"The mulatto lifted his arms against Captain Preston, and having
turned one of the muskets, he seized the bayonet with his left
hand, as if he intended to execute his threat At this moment,
confused cries were heard: 'The wretches dare not fire!' Firing
succeeds. Attucks is slain. Other discharges follow. Three were
killed, five severely wounded and several others slightly."

Attucks was killed by Montgomery, one of Captain Preston's soldiers. He
had been foremost in resisting and was first slain. As proof of a front
engagement, he received two balls, one in each breast. The white men
killed with Attucks were Samuel Maverick, Samuel Gray and Jonas
Caldwell.

John Adams, afterwards President of the United States, was counsel for
the soldiers in the investigation which followed. He admitted that
Attucks appeared to have been the hero of the occasion and the leader of
the people. Attucks and Caldwell, not being residents of Boston, were
buried from Faneuil Hall, the cradle of liberty. The citizens generally
participated in the solemnities.

If the outrages against the American colonists had not been so flagrant,
and so well imbedded as indisputable records of our history; if the
action of the military authorities had not been so arbitrary, the
uprising of Attucks and his followers might be looked upon as a common,
reprehensible riot and th