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Horses RAIsIne IN CoLtoniAL 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 Bird with four mares on board (25), and in the same year 
the Bonaventure with two, four having been lost in transit (26). In 
1635 Winthrop speaks also of the arrival of a Dutch vessel with ‘‘ 27 
Bilendersemares:.......... 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 
eargo 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 eattle 
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 hasie stock 
from which two noted American breeds —the Narragansett pacers and 
the still more famous Morgans — were later developed, it is worth while 
