NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 51 



who exchanged them for various trifles. Traders gathered 

 together large quantities of beaver pelts, which were sent back 

 to England. The magnitude of this industry may be gathered 

 when we read in Winthrop's account that in April 1633 a 

 vessel from Massachusetts, bound out for London, was wrecked 

 on the Virginia coast with the loss among other things of four 

 hogsheads of beaver weighing 900 pounds; and again, in the 

 same year, he tells of a Mr. Graves sailing with between five 

 and six thousand weight of beaver. Bradford's "History of 

 the Plimmoth Plantation" lists seven sailings between 1631 

 and 1636, in which a total of over 12,500 pounds of beaver was 

 exported from the colony, with a total value of about 10,000 

 sterling. Soon after this time, John Pynchon, of what is now 

 Springfield, Mass., was the chief one to handle the furs brought 

 in by the Indians from the surrounding region of the Connecti- 

 cut Valley. His old account books show that in the six years 

 between 1652 and 1657 he packed for England 47 hogsheads 

 containing 8,992 beaver skins, weighing over 13,000 pounds, 

 with an additional 663 pounds sent in bundles. From 1658 to 

 1674 he packed 6,480 beaver skins. Many of these skins were 

 from the country to the north add west of Springfield. Other 

 furs also appear in the inventories, but in lesser quantities. 

 At that time a beaver skin was sold at a standard value per 

 pound, about 8 shillings; and in lieu of currency beaver skins 

 were accepted at standard rates, which varied somewhat from 

 time to time. The traditional "beaver hats" were made from 

 the felted fur of this animal, and although these were mostly 

 manufactured in England there were in later years some among 

 the colonists who were skilled at this trade. For example, 

 Deacon Ebenezer Hunt, of Northampton, Mass., manu- 

 factured hats extensively for 40 years following 1734, buying 

 his furs chiefly in Boston or Albany. After 1750, beaver hats 

 sold at from 20 to 42 shillings each (Judd, S., "History of 

 Hadley, Mass.," p. 355, 1863). At this time beavers were 

 already becoming scarce in the southern part of New England. 

 Albany, N. Y., then known as Beaverwyck, and New York 

 City itself, then New Amsterdam, were the centers from which 

 the Dutch East India Company's posts gathered in rich 

 harvests of furs, while in the north the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, chartered in 1670, formed the outlet for the fur catch in 

 that region. 



