130 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



come so generally diffused. On the one hand we had the much- 

 desired saddle qualities, and on the other we had the much-de- 

 sired increase of size without deterioration in appearance. Thus 

 owners were accommodated and the horse stock of the country 

 was improved by the interbreeding of the two nationalities. It 

 is not necessary to further particularize different importations. 

 It is sufficient to say that they were very numerous, and the mul- 

 tiplying of the stock was carried forward with vigor and success. 

 Five years later 1640 the colonists not only had all the horses 

 they needed, but they shipped a cargo of eighty head to Barba- 

 does. From the colony of Massachusetts Bay all the plantations 

 of New England secured their foundation stock of horses, hence 

 they are here considered collectively. 



The people of the Plymouth plantation were very slow in pro- 

 viding themselves with horses, and it was not till after 1632 that 

 they had any. It is hard to conceive of a colony like that of 

 Massachusetts Bay living and flourishing for a period of, say, 

 eighty years without a newspaper, and yet such is the fact. The 

 Boston News-Letter, the first newspaper, so called, in this coun- 

 try, was established May 29, 1704, and it lived many years. The 

 early colonial newspapers, from one end of the land to the other, 

 were anything and everything but newspapers, as we understand 

 the meaning of the title in our day. If a boy fell off a building 

 in London and broke his leg, six weeks before, it was liable to 

 appear as an item of "news" in the local American newspaper, 

 but if the same accident happened the week before, in a neigh- 

 boring town, it was never mentioned. The name "newspaper" 

 attached to such publications was a fraud. 



The following is a copy of the first horse advertisement ever 

 published in this country, and for that reason it is worthy of pres- 

 ervation. It was taken from the Boston News-Letter of Novem- 

 ber 19, 1705: 



" Strayed from Mr. John Wilson of Braintree, at Mr. Havens' in Kingston, 

 in Narragansett, about a fortnight ago, a sorrel mare, low stature, four white 

 feet, a white face, shod all round, her near ear tore, has a long white tail and 

 mane. Whoever will give any intelligence of her . . . will be sufficiently 

 rewarded." 



As this was in the period when the Narragansett pacers had 

 reached their greatest fame, we might argue that this mare had been 

 sent down to Kingston from Braintree, Massachusetts, to be win- 



