892 Deane Phillips 



tolerated only after the country was well settled and customs had 

 changed considerably. 



EARLY IMPORTATIONS 



The first colonists who settled at Plymouth in 1620 brought neither 

 iiorses nor cattle with them to the new land, and it was not until four 

 years later that the first neat was brought over (15). In the same 

 year the correspondence of Governor Bradford indicates that '' a bull 

 and 3 or 4 jades " were to be shipped to him from London to be sold 

 in the colony (16). The first record of the actual presence of a horse 

 in Plymouth seems to be in 1632. Governor John Winthrop, of the 

 Massachusetts Bay colony, describes in his diary a journey made to 

 Plymouth in that year, partly by boat and partly on foot, and States 

 that on his return he was sent a part of the way on " the Governor's 

 mare " as a mark of special respect (17). 



However, from some source — probably England, but possibly Hol- 

 laiid, with whose ships the colonists had traded (18) — the Plymouth 

 settlers had by 1632 obtained a considerable supply of cattle, for it 

 is stated by Governor Bradford that by this date many persons had 

 been enriched by selling corn and cattle at high prices to newcomers 

 in both Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay and had '' spread out on 

 f amies " for the purpose of raising more (19). As to the number 

 of horses in Plymouth at that time, however, no information can be 

 gleaned from Bradford's narrative, for he, in common with other 

 writers of the period, uses the term cattle more or less indiscriminately 

 to cover any sort of livestock, including horses. 



The richer Massachusetts Bay colony seems to have been better sup- 

 plied than the colony at Plymouth. The fleet that arrived with its 

 numerous settlers in the year 1629 brought over also a considerable 

 number of horses and cattle, one hundred and fifteen head in all (20), 

 among which were thirteen horses (21). In the following year the ships 

 that brought over Governor Winthrop and the second group of colonists 

 had on board two hundred and forty cows and about sixty horses, as 

 is learned from Winthrop 's letters (22). Some of these animals died 

 while en route and it is not certain just how many were added to the 

 stock of the colony, but among the horses that survived there were 

 both mares and stallions (23). 



