Horse Raising in Colonial New England 893 



After the arrival of these early settlers, the succeeding decade saw 

 the landing of a steady stream of new colonists about the bay. It is 

 reasonable to suppose that they also brought many horses, but specific 

 references to such importations are not frequent. Sir Ferdinand Gorges 

 in 1632 wrote from England to Captain John Mason in Massachusetts 

 promising to send over several at the first opportunity (24), but no 

 mention is made of their arrival. Winthrop also records a few importa- 

 tions, but in a casual and incidental fashion which implies that his 

 register makes no attempt at completeness in this respect. Of those 

 noted by Winthrop, the first is in 1633, when he mentions the arrival of 

 the ship Bi7'd with four mares on board (25), and in the same year 

 the Bonaveniure with two, four having been lost in transit (26). In 

 1635 Winthrop speaks also of the arrival of a Dutch vessel with " 27 



Flanders mares and 3 horses " (27). This last-named ship 



had cleared at the Texel five weeks previously, and had thus made an 

 unusually quick voyage and one notable for the fact that none of her 

 cargo of livestock had been lost en route. 



During these early years, also, both Winthrop and Bradford record 

 in their journals the frequent arrival in the bay of ships having cattle 

 on board, and it is probable, for reasons already given, that these 

 ** cattle " often included some horses. The number of such arrivals 

 was certainly large. Winthrop, for example, notes that in 1634, '' dur- 

 ing the week the court was in session there came in six ships with store 

 of passengers and cattle " (28). In the same year there were fourteen 

 ships in one month which cast anchor either in Salem or in Boston (29). 

 Many more arrivals probably went entirely unrecorded, and therefore 

 the scantiness of the record does not necessarily mean that horses were 

 not being brought into the country in considerable quantities. That 

 they were being imported in large numbers is, in fact, the only possible 

 conclusion to be drawn in view of their great abundance a few years 

 later — to confirm which there is plenty of evidence, as will be shown 

 presently. 



SOURCES OF NEW ENGLAND HORSES 



Since the early importations undoubtedly furnished the basic stock 

 from which two noted American breeds^ — the Narragansett pacers and 

 the still more famous Morgans — were later developed, it is worth while 



