15 



high." We doubt the authority of the Indian hunt- 

 ers, who told him, " that up in the country," there 

 are some of these creatures " as big as a child a 

 year old." The fidelity of the voyager, who in- 

 dorses such statements, cannot be received, without 

 corroborative testimony of his own veracity. In 1638, 

 having enjoyed the hospitality of Maverick, "the 

 tenth day of October," he says, "I went aboard, 

 and we fell down to Nantascott . . . The next day, 

 Mr. Luxon, our master, having been ashore upon 

 the governor's island, gave me half a score very fair 

 pippins, which he brought from thence : there being 

 not one apple tree, nor pear, planted yet, in no part 

 of the country, but upon that island.'" 



Denying, as we may well do, that no apple or 

 pear tree had been before reared, there is reason to 

 admit, that his knowledge and assertions were cor- 

 rect, to the extent of his having made trial of the 

 exquisite flavor of the earliest pippin of our country. 



The WiNTHROP name, connected with the origin, 

 has been stamped upon the maturity of institutions, 

 spreading benign influence over the present, and 

 destined to extend beneficent action through com- 

 ing time. The memory of the first governor of 

 Massachusetts is hallowed, by the piety and learn- 

 ing, the integrity and benevolence, the wisdom and 

 prudence, shining in his daily life and casting their 

 reflected glow on succeeding years. Could we 

 trace the fruit back to that island garden where the 

 golden apples first ripened which refreshed the tired 

 spirit of the father of the colony, we might yet pay 



(1)3 Mass. Hist. Col. vol. iii. page 231. See nnle III. 



