CHAPTEE X. 



COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY NEW ENGLAND. 



First importations to Boston and to Salem Importations from Holland; 

 brought high prices They were not pacers and not over fourteen hands 

 In 1640 horses were exported to the West Indies First American news- 

 paper and first horse advertisement Average sizes The different gaits 

 CONNECTICUT, first plantation, 1636 Post horses provided for by law 

 All horses branded Sizes and Gaits An Englishman's experience with 

 pacers Lindsay's Arabian RHODE ISLAND, Founded by Roger Williams, 

 1636 No direct importations ever made Horses largely exported to 

 other colonies 1690 Possibly some to Canada Pacing races a common 

 amusement Prohibited 1749 Size of the Narragansetts compared with 

 the Virginians. 



IN 1629 the London founders of the plantation of Massachu- 

 setts Bay sent out six vessels laden with emigrants, horses, cattle, 

 goats, etc. These vessels brought some twenty-five head of 

 mares and stallions, that were valued at six pounds each and all 

 owned by the company in London, except three mares from 

 Leicester, that were owned by private parties. At that time 

 there seems to have been some rivalry between Boston and Salem 

 as a shipping point, but this fleet came to Boston harbor. This 

 same year (1629) Salem seems to have had six or seven mares and 

 one stallion, besides forty cows, and forty goats. From this it 

 might be safely inferred that a part of this fleet put into Salem 

 harbor, or that there may have been another and somewhat earlier 

 shipment of which we have no details. Salem was really 

 founded in 1626, and the settlement at Charlestown, Boston, 

 dates from the same year. The next year about sixty head were 

 shipped to the plantation, but many were lost during the voyage, 

 of both horses and cattle. Several other shipments followed, but 

 nothing worthy of special note, till 1635, when two Dutch ships 

 arrived at Salem with twenty-seven mares, valued at thirty-four 

 pounds each, and three stallions. Some writers have spoken of 

 these mares as "Flanders mares," but I have not been able to 

 find any evidence or even indication that this might have been 



