On the same day the court held at Charlestown ordered that Trimountaine be called Boston. This name was given to it in memory of Boston in Old England from which many of the colonists had emigrated, and which was the former home of Mr. Isaac Johnson, next to Governor Winthrop the most important man among the band of emigrants. The name of Trimountaine, which has been transformed into Tremont, was peculiarly appropriate. As seen from Charlestown, the peninsula seemed to consist of three high hills, afterwards named Copp's, Beacon, and Fort. And the highest of the three was itself a trimountain, having three sharp little peaks. It seems to be agreed that this peculiarity of Beacon Hill was what, gave to the Place its ancient name.

The first settler in Boston was Mr. William Blaxton, or Blackstone, who had lived here several years when the Massachusetts Colony was formed. Soon after selling the land to the new company of immigrants, he withdrew to the place that now bears his name, the town of Blackstone, on the border of Rhode Island.

Boston was selected as the centre and metropolis of the Massachusetts Colony. The nucleus of the Colony was large, and the several towns lying along the coast were, considering the circumstances, rapidly settled. During the year 1630 as many as fifteen hundred persons came from England. In ten years not less than twenty thousand had been brought over. The records show that in 1639 there was a muster in Boston of the militia of the Colony to the number of a thousand able - bodied and well-armed men. It as impossible to learn accurately the population of Boston at any time during the first century after its settlement, since no enumeration was made. But there is authority for the statement that in 1674 there were about fifteen hundred families in the town, and the population of New England was then reckoned at one hundred and twenty thousand.

The early history of Boston has been an almost inexhaustible field for the researches of local antiquaries. Considering that almost three-quarters of a century elapsed before the first newspaper was printed, the materials for making a complete account of the events that occurred, and for forming a correct estimate of the habits and mode of life of the people, are remarkably abundant. The records have been searched to good purpose. Still it is to visitors that we are indebted for some of the most quaint and interesting pictures of early New England life. An English traveler, named Edward Ward, published in London in 1699 an account of his trip to New England, in which he describes the customs of Bostonians in a lively manner, and perhaps with a degree of truthfulness, though some parts of the story are evidently exaggerated. Mr. Ward thought it a great hardship that "Kissing a Woman in Public, tho' offer'd as a Courteous Salutation," should be visited with the heavy punishment of whipping for both the offenders. There were even then "stately Edifices, some of which have cost the owners two or three Thousand Pounds sterling." This fact Mr. Ward rather illogically conceived to prove the truth of two old adages, "That a Fool and his money is soon parted; and, Set a Beggar on Horseback he'll ride to the Devil; for the Fathers of these Men were Tinkers and Peddlers." He seemed to have a very low opinion of the religious and moral character of the people. Mr. Daniel Neal, who wrote a book a few years later, found "the conversation in this town as polite as in most of the cities and towns in England." He describes the houses, furniture, tables, and dress as being quite as splendid and showy as those of the most considerable tradesmen in London.

But while we find such abundant means of judging the people of Boston, hardly a vestige of the town as it appeared to the earliest settlers remains. We have, it is true, in a good state of preservation still, the three most ancient burial-grounds of the town; half a dozen very old trees remain; about as many buildings. Some of the narrow and crooked streets at the North End have retained their early devious course, but generally appear upon the map under changed names. Nothing else of Boston in its first century is preserved. The face of the country has been completely transformed. The hills have been cut down, and the flats surrounding the peninsula have been filled so that it is a peninsula no longer. Place side by side a map of Boston as it appeared in 1722 and the latest map and any resemblance between them can hardly be traced. The old water line has disappeared completely. On the east, the west, and the south, nearly a thousand acres once covered by the tide have been reclaimed, and are now covered with streets, dwellings, and warehouses.

It would be interesting to dwell upon the early history of Boston, and to discover indications of the gradual formation of the New England character, but all this curious study must be left to the historian. A few facts and dates only can find a place here. Boston was from the first a commercial town. Less than a year had elapsed since the settlement of the town when the first vessel built in the colony was launched. We may infer something in regard to the activity of the foreign and coasting trade from the statement of Mr. Neal, before referred to. "The masts of ships here, and at proper seasons of the year, make a kind of wood of trees like that we see upon the river of Thames about Wapping and Limehouse." The same author says that twenty-four thousand tons of shipping were, at that time, 1719, cleared annually from the port of Boston. It was not until four years after the settlement of the town that a shop was erected separate from the dwelling of the proprietor. In these early days the merchants of Boston met with many reverses, and wealth was acquired but slowly in New England generally. Nevertheless, the town was on the whole prosperous. In 1741 there were forty vessels upon the stocks at one time in Boston, showing that a quick demand for shipping existed at that period. At the close of the seventeenth century, Boston was probably the largest and wealthiest town in America, and it has ever since retained its rank among the very first towns on the continent.

The colonists brought their minister with them, --the Rev. John Wilson, who was ordained pastor of the church in Charlestown, and afterwards of the church in Boston. But the meetinghouse was not built until 1632. This building was very small and very plain, within and without. It is believed to have stood nearly on the spot where Brazer's Building now stands, near the Old State House, in State Street. In 1640 the same society occupied a new, much larger and finer building, which stood on the site now occupied by Joy's Building on Washington Street. This second edifice stood seventy-one years, and was destroyed by fire in 1711. The "First Church" removed a few years ago from Chauncy Street to its present very elegant church building on Berkeley Street. Several other churches were established very soon after the "First," and there are now in existence as many as nine church organizations dating back to the first hundred years after the place was settled. The fathers of the town were sternly religious, outwardly at all events. The evidences are abundant that they were also zealous for education. The influence of Harvard College, in Cambridge, was strong upon Boston from the first; but the town voted a public school in 1635, three years before Harvard was founded. We have seen the testimony of an Englishman as to the polished manners, intelligence, and education of the inhabitants of Boston, and this evidence is confirmed by our own records and by the long line of eminent clergymen, writers, and orators born in the town.

It was here that the first newspaper ever published on the American continent, the "Boston News Letter," appeared on the 24th of April 1704. Two years later the first great New England journalist, and afterwards a philosopher, statesman, and diplomatist, was born in a little house that stood near the head of Milk Street, and that is still remembered by some of the oldest citizens of Boston. It was destroyed by fire at the close of the year 1811, after having stood almost a hundred and twenty years. The office of the "Boston Post" now covers the spot.

The history of the thirty years preceding the Revolution is full of incidents showing the independent spirit of the inhabitants of Boston, their determination not to submit to the unwarrantable interference of the British government in their affairs and particularly to the unjust taxation imposed upon the Colonies, and their willingness to incur any risks rather than yield to oppression. As early as 1747 there was a great riot in Boston, caused by the aggression of British naval officers. Commodore Knowles, being short of men, had impressed sailors in the streets of Boston. The people made reprisals by seizing some British officers, and holding them as hostages for the return of their fellow- citizens. The excitement was very great, but the affair terminated by the release of the impressed men and the naval officers, the first victory registered to the account of the resisting colonists. Twenty years later the town was greatly agitated over the Stamp Act and hardly had the excitement died away when, on March 5, 1770, the famous Boston Massacre took place. The story is familiar to every schoolboy. The affair originated without any special grievance on either side, but the whole population took the part of the mob against the soldiers, showing what a deep-seated feeling of hostility existed even then. The scene of this massacre was the square in King Street, now State Street, below the Old State House. The well-known woodcut of the scene shows the State House in the background, but in a form quite different from the present. This building was erected in 1748, on the site occupied by the Town House destroyed by fire the year previous. It has long been given up to business purposes, the interior has been completely remodeled, and the edifice surmounted by a roof that has wholly destroyed the quaint effect of the original architecture. It was in its day, we are assured by history, "an elegant building. The accompanying picture shows the Old State House in its ancient form. How it appears today may be seen from the view on another page. The funeral of the victims of the massacre was attended by an immense concourse of people from all parts of New England, and the impression made by the conflict upon the patriotic men of that day did not die out until the War of the Revolution had begun. The day was celebrated for several years as a memorial anniversary. The newspapers of the day did their full share towards keeping up the excitement. The "Massachusetts Spy," which began publication in Boston in 1770, was one of the most earnest of the patriotic press. Two or three years before the beginning of the war, it had, at the head of its columns, an invocation to Liberty, with a coarse woodcut of a serpent cut into nine parts, attacked by a dragon. The several parts of the serpent were 'marked "N. E." for New England, "N. Y.," "N. J.," and so on, and above this cut was the motto "Join or Die."

The destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor was another evidence of the spirit of the people. The ships, having "the detested tea" on board, arrived on the last of November and the first of December 1773. Having kept watch over the ships to prevent the landing of any of the tea until the 16th of December and having failed to compel the consignees to send the cargoes back to England, the people were holding a meeting on the subject on the afternoon of the 16th when a formal refusal by the Governor of a permit for the vessels to pass the castle without a regular customhouse clearance was received. The meeting broke up, and the whole assembly followed a party of thirty persons disguised as Indians to Griffin's (now Liverpool) Wharf, where the chests were broken open and their contents emptied into the dock. The secret of the participators in this affair has been well kept, and it is doubtful if any additional light will ever be thrown upon it. It has been claimed, though on very doubtful authority, that the plot was concocted in the quaint old building that stood until a few years since on the corner of Dock Square and North (formerly Ann) Street. This building was constructed of roughcast in the year 1680, after the great fire of 1679; and was until 1860, when it was taken down, one of the most curious specimens of architecture in Boston. A cut of this old building is given, without any voucher of the tradition that assigns to a certain room in it the origin of a bold act that led to such momentous consequences.

The people of the town took as prominent a part in the war when it broke out as they had taken in the preceding events. They suffered in their commerce and in their property by the enforcement of the Boston Port Act, and by the occupation of the town by British soldiers. Their churches and burial-grounds were desecrated by the English troops, and annoyances without number were put upon them, but they remained steadfast through all. General Washington took command of the American army July 2, 1775, in Cambridge, but for many months there was no favorable opportunity for making an attack on Boston. During the winter that followed, the people of Boston endured many hardships, but their deliverance was near at hand. By a skilful piece of strategy Washington took possession of Dorchester Heights on the night of the 4th of March, 1776, where earthworks were immediately thrown up, and in the morning the British found their enemy snugly ensconced in a strong position both for offence and defense. A fortunate storm prevented the execution of General Howe's plan of dislodging the Americans; and by the 17th of March his situation in Boston had become so critical that an instant evacuation of the town was imperatively necessary. Before noon of that day the whole British fleet was under sail, and General Washington was marching triumphantly into the town. Our sketch shows the heights of Dorchester as they appear today; yet it is easy to see from it how completely the position commands the harbor. No attempt was made by the British to repossess the town. At the close of the war Boston was, if not the first town in the country in point of population, the most influential, and it entered immediately upon a course of prosperity that has continued with very few interruptions to the present time.

The first and most serious of these interruptions was that which began with the embargo at the close of the year 1807, and which lasted until the peace of 1815. Massachusetts owned, at the beginning of that disastrous term of seven years, one third of the shipping of the United States. The embargo was a most serious blow to her interests. She did not believe in the constitutionality of the act, nor in its wisdom. She believed that the real motives assigned for its passage were not those alleged by the President and the majority in Congress, and this view was confirmed by subsequent events. The war that followed she judged to be a mistake, and her discontent was aggravated by the usurpations of the general government. Nevertheless, in response to the call for troops she sent more men than any other State, and New England furnished more than all the slave States that were so eager in support of the administration. In all the proceedings of those eventful years Boston men were leaders. Holding views that were unpopular, and that many deemed unpatriotic, they held them with pluck and persistence to the end.

Again, in the war of the Rebellion, having been one of the foremost communities in the opposition to slavery, Boston was again a leader, this time on the popular side. In this war, in which she only took part by furnishing men and means to carry it on at a distance, and in supporting it by the cheering and patriotic words of those who remained at home, her history is that of Massachusetts. During the four years of conflict the city and State responded promptly to every call of every nature from the general government, and furnished troops for every department of the army, and money in abundance to carry on the war and to relieve suffering in the field. Boston alone sent into the army and navy no less than 26,119 men, of whom 685 were commissioned officers.

Boston retained its town government until 1822. The subject of changing to the forms of an incorporated city was much discussed as early as 1784, but a vote of the town in favor of the change was not carried until January 1822. Then the citizens declared, by a majority of about six thousand five hundred out of about fifteen thousand votes, their preference for a city government. The Legislature passed an act incorporating the city in February of the same year, and on the 4th of March the charter was formally accepted. The city government, consisting of a mayor, Mr. John Phillips, as chief executive officer, and a city council composed of boards of eight aldermen and forty-eight common councilmen, was organized on May 1.

During the last half-century the commercial importance of Boston has experienced a reasonably steady and constant development; the greatest check upon her prosperity having been the destructive fire of the 9th and 10th of November, 1872. The industries of New England have in that time grown to immense proportions and Boston is the natural market and distributing-point for the most of them. The increase of population and the still more rapid aggregation of wealth tell the story far more effectively than words can do it. In 1790 the population of the town was but 18,033. The combined population of the three towns of Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester, at intervals of ten years, is given in the following table : -

The valuation of real and personal property in the last forty years shows a still more marvellous increase. The official returns at intervals of five years show : -

In 1840 the average amount of property owned by each inhabitant of Boston was less than nine hundred dollars, but in 1870 it had increased to an average of more than twenty-three hundred dollars. After the annexation to Boston of the city of Charlestown and the towns of West Roxbury and Brighton, the population of the united municipality became, by the census of 1870, 292,499. The estimated population, based on the assessors' returns of 1873, was 357,254. The valuation the same year, which was taken before any great recovery had been made from the calamitous fire of 1872, was $765,818,713.

The growth of Boston proper has, notwithstanding these very creditable figures, been very seriously retarded by the lack of room for expansion. Until the era of railroads it was impracticable for gentlemen doing business in Boston to live far from its corporate limits. Accordingly it was necessary to "make land" by filling the flats as soon as the dimensions of the peninsula became too contracted for the population and business gathered upon it. Some very old maps show how early this enlargement was commenced; and hardly any two of these ancient charts agree. During the present century very great progress has been made. All the old ponds, coves, and creeks have been filled in, and on the south and southwest the connection with the mainland has been so widened that it is now as broad as the broadest part of the original peninsula; and the work is not yet finished. In other respects the improvements have been immense. All the hills have been cut down, and one of them has been entirely removed. The streets, which were formerly so narrow and crooked as to give point to the joke that they were laid out upon the paths made by the cows in going to pasture, have been widened, straightened, and graded. Whole districts covered with buildings of brick and stone have been raised, with the structures upon them, many feet. The city has extended its authority over the island, once known as Noddle's Island, now East Boston, which was almost uninhabited and unimproved until its purchase on speculation in 1830; over South Boston, once Dorchester Neck, annexed to Boston in 1804; and finally, by legislative acts and the consent of the citizens, over the ancient municipalities of Roxbury, Dorchester, Charlestown, West Roxbury, and Brighton. The original limits of Boston comprised but 690 acres. By filling in flats 880 acres have been added. By the absorption of South and East Boston and by filling the flats surrounding these districts, 1,700 acres more were acquired. Roxbury contributed 2,100 acres, Dorchester 4,800, Charlestown 600, West Roxbury 8,000, and Brighton 3,000. The entire present area of the city is therefore about 21,800 acres,- more than thirty times as great as the original area. Meanwhile, the numerous railroads radiating from Boston and reaching to almost every village within thirty miles have rendered it possible for businessmen to make their homes far away from their counting-rooms. By this means scores of suburban towns, unequalled in extent and beauty by those surrounding any other great city of the country, have been built up, and the value of property in all the eastern parts of Massachusetts has been very largely enhanced. These towns are most intimately connected with Boston in business and social relations, and in a sense form a part of the city. It is this theory that has led to the annexation of five suburban municipalities already, and that will undoubtedly lead, at no distant day, to the absorption of others of the surrounding cities and towns, in some of which we shall find places and objects to be illustrated and described.