Island. Friendly intercourse was soon established between the two isolated families. Mrs. Winthrop was an agreeable and accomplished woman, and she became very much attached to the sweet young bride. Many of Sylvester's letters to Winthrop are extant-having been exhumed from the Winthrop papers-three of which are before me at this moment, throwing a flood of light upon their domestic experiences in the long ago. The penmanship is remarkably fine, and the style of expression that of a scholarly man of the world. On October 10, 1654, Sylvester writes on business, addressing Winthrop ceremoniously, with the following preface: "After my heartie thanks for your last courtesies I have made bould by the bearer, my brother, to salute both you and Mrs. Winthrop in these lines," etc. A letter, dated September 8, 1655, is written in a most pathetic strain. The baby is sick, cannot breathe through its nose, and is in danger of strangling. Sylvester appeals anxiously to Winthrop for advice as to what shall be done for the little one (two months old), and for medicine if possible. He says: "Our greef is great to see the child lay in ye sad condition, and here we are quite out of ye way of help." A letter addressed to Winthrop in 1675 will be found reproduced in full on the preceding page. The sugar business in which Sylvester was concerned became very lucrative. Timber was furnished from Shelter Island with which to manufacture the hogsheads, it being better suited to the purpose than any produced in the West Indies. There is on record an account of the gift of a hogshead of sugar to Winthrop by Constant Sylvester. About this time (1656) the first Quakers appeared in Boston. The extraordinary proceedings against them are well known to all cultured Americans. They were regarded as blasphemous heretics, and the most barbarous and atrocious persecutions followed. Many of the principal sufferers found an asylum on Shelter Island. George Fox, founder of the society of Quakers, was twice a guest of the Sylvesters in their hospitable home, and preached to the Indians from the door-steps of the mansion.. Hither fled the aged Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, who, after imprisonment, starvation, and whipping, were banished from the jurisdiction of Boston on pain of death, and who soon died, within three days of each other, tenderly cared for by Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester under their own roof. It was this incident that inspired one of Whittier's most beautiful poems: "So from his lost home, to the darkening main Bodeful of storm, good Macey held his way; And when the green shore blended with the gray Nay woman, weak of faith, kneel down,' said he, And say thy prayers: the Lord himself will steer And led by Him nor man nor devils I fear;' So the gray Southwicks from a rainy sea Saw, far and faint, the loom of land and gave With feeble voices thanks for friendly ground Whereon to rest their weary feet and found A peaceful death-bed and a quiet grave, Where ocean-walled and wiser than his age, The Lord of Shelter scorned the bigot's rage." It seems on glancing backward into these dark ages as if the more extreme the acts of cruelty, the faster the Quakers multiplied. The son and daughter of the Southwicks were fined ten pounds each, and as an expedient for raising the money the General Court at Boston absolutely passed a resolution to sell them into slavery, and offered them to one sea captain after another for the markets of Virginia and Barbadoes. No buyer could be found; the inhumanity was too glaring. Other instances followed where Quakers were fined, and having no visible property, were sentenced to be sold as slaves. Yet no ship masters would ever become parties to such transactions, and the attempts failed. Two "Gospel THE ANCIENT BOX IN THE GARDEN. messengers" from England, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson (one coming by way of Virginia, the other via Barbadoes) met at Shelter Island, and went to Boston in 1659 to remonstrate against the "unholy cruelties." They were promptly seized, imprisoned, and sentenced to banishment on pain of death. Regardless of the edict, these Quakers continued four weeks preaching in Salem, within the limits of the colony, making many converts, and then marched back triumphantly to Boston and gave up their lives, a willing sacrifice, to show the world the impotence of persecution "to stay the work of the Lord." They were hanged on Boston Common, and Mary Dyer was to have been executed for her religious opinions at the same time; but a reprieve came after her ascent of the ladder, and she was banished instead. She went to Shelter Island, where she remained several months; but, in March, 1660, she suddenly made up her mind to go to Boston, and consequently her doom was sealed; she was hung on Boston Common. The same day two other victims. were brought before the General Court at Boston, Joseph Nicholson and wife, but death appeared to have no terrors for them. They were released and subsequently found their asylum for a time on Shelter Island. Many who had been mutilated, maimed, their flesh lacerated by the whips, or burned with hot irons, were tenderly nursed-their wounds dressed and healed by the Sylvesters. John Rouse, whose ears were cut off, was the son of Sylvester's former partner. William Leddra, executed early in 1661, came from Barbadoes to Shelter Island, before going to Boston. At the very moment the court at Boston was passing sentence of death on Leddra, Wenlock Christison walked boldly into the court room! For a moment Governor Endicott almost lost his voice in dismay. "Wast thou not banished on pain of death?" he finally asked. "Yea, I was," said Christison. "What dost thou here then?" asked Endicott. "I come to warn you to shed no more innocent blood," said the contumacious Quaker. He was quickly handed over to the jailer; but the case of Edward Wharton just before this and his indignant protest, questioning the right of the court to murder him when it had no charge against him but his "hat and his hair," had disconcerted the magistrates. What he said was ringing in their ears: "Note my words; do not think to weary out the living God by taking away the lives of his servants. What do you gain by it? For the last man you put to death, here are five to come in his room"-and the court trembled, and became suddenly divided in sentiment; Endicott was so disturbed that for two days he refused to preside. But events on the other side of the Atlantic were about to terminate these merciless outrages. The fall of the Cromwell government and the restoration of Charles II. spread consternation among those rulers in Massachusetts who had assumed powers never conferred by their charter. It looked as if the skies were about to fall on them. Mrs. Sylvester, who had opened her doors so generously to the starving and suffering, had been writing graphic and truthful accounts of the horrible persecutions to her father in his exile, who was always near Charles II.; and the young king thereby was kept well informed on the subject in all its dreadful details. When the news of the tragic fate of William Leddra reached England and it was further stated that many other Quakers in Boston were sentenced to die, Edward Burroughs sought and was granted admission to the royal presence. The interview was brief, Charles II. being perfectly familiar with the situation. When Burroughs said: "A vein of innocent blood has been opened in your dominions"-the king interrupted him with, "I will stop that vein; " and when Burroughs suggested that "it should be done speedily," the king responded, " as speedily as you will," and at once called his secretary and dictated the famous mandamus, which, as the "King's Missive," has been immortalized in verse by one of our beloved American poets, and which was forwarded to Boston at once by Samuel Shattuck, one of the exiled Quakers. The scene described by Whittier on its arrival is in accordance with the records: "Under the great hill sloping bare To cove and meadow and common lot, The door swung open and Rawson the clerk Twice and thrice on the chamber floor The governor cried, if I hang not all! Soon after the capture of New York by the English, the owners of Shelter Island obtained a confirmation of their title, as required by the laws of 1664. They also arranged with Governor Nicolls for a perpetual exemption from taxes and other public burdens, through the payment of £150, "one half in beef and the other half in pork." The last clause of the release document is as follows: "Now know ye, that by virtue of commission and authority given unto me by his Royal Highness, James Duke of York, I for and in consideration of the aforesaid sum of £150, and for other good causes and considerations we thereunto moving, doe hereby grant unto ye said Nathaniel and Constant Sylvester, and to their heirs and assignees forever, that the said Island called Shelter Island, is, and forever hereafter shall be, by |