98 



Field Meeting at the Willows, Salem Neck, 

 Tuesday, June 22, 1880. 



The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the arrival 

 of John AVinthrop, at Salem, with the charter and records 

 of the Massachusetts Bay Company, occurring on June 22, 

 1880, it was deemed meet and appropriate that the first 

 field meeting of the season should be held on that day, 

 at the Pavilion on Salem Neck, from which is obtained 

 an extensive view of the l^ay, and of the shore along 

 which the fleet sailed ere the anchors were dropped in 

 the waters of New England ; and that the exercises 

 of the occasion, instead of a discussion on subjects of 

 general scientific and historical interest, should be devoted 

 to a recital of incidents connected with tliis important 

 event, or such other topics as the time and place might 

 suggest. 



A description of the appearance of Salem harbor, at 

 this early period in our history, may be gleaned from the 

 following extracts from the diary of Rev. Francis Higgin- 

 son, who, under date of "Fryday, June 26, 1629," writes : 

 "The sea was abundantly stored with rockweed and yel- 

 low flowers like gillyflowers. By noon we were within 

 3 leagues of Capan, and as we sayled along the coast 

 we saw every hill and dale, and every island full of gay 

 woods and hisfh trees. The nearer we came to the shoare 

 the more flowers in abundance, somet^^mes scattered 

 abroad, sometymes joyned in sheets 9 or 10 yards long, 

 which w^e supposed to be brought from the low meadows 

 by the tyde. Now what with fine woods and greene 

 trees by land, and their yellow flowers paynting the sea, 

 made us all desirous to see our new paradise of New 

 EnoLuid, whence we saw such forerunning signals of fer- 



