No. 4.] fflGHWAYS. 211 



A3IERICAN KOADS. 



It would hardly be possible to exaggerate the disgrace- 

 ful condition of American roads during the greater part of 

 tlie colonial period. To a large extent the earliest settlers 

 adopted the Indian trails in establishing their lines of com- 

 munication. These were mere foot paths through the forests, 

 along which the Indians were accustomed to march in sino-le 

 file. They followed the most solid part of the country, and 

 were, of course, in many cases very crooked, so that the 

 ancient highways, especially in a broken country like New 

 England, are far from affording the shortest possible route 

 from point to point. Until the opening of the eighteenth 

 century there were few wheeled vehicles in use for travel 

 upon public roads. Heavy and clumsy carts Avere employed 

 for farming operations, but not until 1692 were they em- 

 ployed in moving produce on the highways. All travel 

 was on foot or by horseback. 



The highway from the Connecticut River eastward from 

 Hadley to Brookfield, Worcester and Boston was called the 

 Bay Road, that is, the road to Massachusetts Bay. It was 

 begun and named in the year 1661, and was the earliest 

 link of communication between the central and more north- 

 erly river towns of Massachusetts and the capital of the 

 province. In December of that year the inhabitants of the 

 new settlement appropriated forty-five shillings " towards 

 laying out a commodious way to the Bay by Nashaway," 

 the Indian name of Lancaster ; but the matter seems then 

 to have been neglected, for in 1674 we find the county court 

 censuring Iladley for not joining Northampton in laying out 

 a way to Quabaug (Brookfield), and requiring Iladley to 

 build a foot bridge over Fort River. 



During the eighteenth century roads multiplied in New 

 England and throughout the Atlantic States, but they were 

 almost undeserving the name of highways. They were 

 built on the surface, without any adequate drainage or much 

 attempt at it, and for several weeks in the spring were prac- 

 tically impassable. President D wight, in his " Travels 

 through New England," emphasizes the difficulties of most 



