They spoke
a strange, unintelligible jargon.
They proceeded two by two to Griffin's Wharf,
where three tea-ships lay, each with one hundred
and fourteen chests of the ill-fated article on
board. And before nine o'clock in the evening
every chest was knocked into pieces and flung
over the sides.
Not the least insult was offered to any one,
save one Captain Conner, who had ripped up the
linings of his coat and waistcoat, and, watching
his opportunity, had filled them with tea. But,
being detected, he was handled pretty roughly.
They not only stripped him of his clothes, but
gave him a coat of mud, with a severe bruising
into the bargain. Nothing but their desire not to
make a disturbance prevented his being tarred
and feathered.
The tea being thrown overboard, all the
Indians disappeared in a most marvelous fashion.
The next day, if a stranger had walked through
the streets of Boston, and had observed the calm
composure of the people, he would hardly have
thought that ten thousand pounds sterling of
East India Company's tea had been destroyed
the night before.
A GUNPOWDER STORY
BY JOHN ESTEN COOKE (ADAPTED)
[6] From Stories of the Old Dominion. Used by permission of the
American Book Company, publishers.
In the autumn of 1777 the English decided to
attack Fort Henry, at Wheeling, in northwestern
Virginia.
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