EAST OP THE MISSISSIPPI EIVER. 41 



menced, Massachusetts prohibited the exportation of rum, molasses 

 cotton or vvooleu goods, wool, leather, aud many necessary articles to 

 be retained in the country, and Few Hampshire laid the same restric- 

 tions. The latter colony also paid much attention to sheep and to the 

 woolen manufacture, the kind of clothing being indicated by that worn 

 by her troops in the army in the year 1782. "White woolen cloth, well 

 milled and sheared, three-fourths wide, 7s. per yardj eight-quarter 

 blankets for soldiers, 21s. per yardj good felt hats, 5s." 



RHODE ISLAND. 



We have no definite record of the first sheep taken into Narragansett 

 Bay and Providence Plantations, but we know that goats went with 

 the first settlers and sheep are mentioned soon after. That tliey were 

 quite plentiful and of good breed we judge from the fact that they bred 

 rapidly and were sought after by the Connecticut settlers as early as 

 1648, in which year William Coddington sold some to John Winthrop, 

 jr., and on their delivery accompanied them with a letter which pos- 

 sesses some interest : 



Octoler 14, 1648.— i have, according to your desire, sent you but ten ewes ; they are 

 all, I do assure you, of the best English breed. I could have sent you louge leged 

 and biger sheepe, but these are better bred. I have sent you five blacke and five 

 whit. I judged it best see to doe, you not exprcsseigne your desire to rae. They are 

 all but shearlings, that is, one yeare old at last lambinge and nowe yeenlng by two, 

 which is known by their teeth, none of them havinge above two brod teeth. I have 

 sent you a rambe lambe, which is of my English breed likewise, both by the ewe and 

 rambe. I know the island nore the countrie could not have furnished you with such 

 aparsell of sheepeoutof myhand. * » » I am glad I was on the island to deliver 

 you your sheepe myaelfe. If you desire to have more whit sheepe than blacke then 

 rambe your ewes with whit rambs ; if more blacke then you may save a black rambe 

 out of your herd of blacke ewes, but by all means put not to your rambes till the lat- 

 ter end of the next mouuth, November. 



John Pynchon and others bought sheep in IsTarragansett Bay in 1655, 

 for the settlements in Connecticut and for the towns in Massachusetts 

 on the upper waters of the Connecticut Eiver, and in 1665 it was re- 

 ported that the best English grass and the most sheep were in this 

 province, the ground being very fruitful and the ewes bringing ordi- 

 narily two lambs. In 1678 wool was rated at M. per pound, which was 

 considered as an overvaluation, for the treasurer was allowed to pass it 

 at 5^. In 1695 wool was taken for taxes at 7Jd!. per pound, and sheep 

 one year old were taxed at 5d. per score. They sold at from 4 to 6 shil- 

 lings each. In 1711 wool was 11^. per pound. Weeden observes that 

 for three-quarters of a century before 1760 the diligent housewives sent 

 to Newport for wool. They made woolen cloths for garments and bed 

 coverings, and they knit stockings. They worked willingly with their 

 hands, and every house in the country was a factory. 



Of all the colonies Ehode Island toolc the lead in exporting sheep; 60 

 ewes were sent to South Carolina in 1726, and she carried on the trade 

 extensively with Curajao and the other West India ports. She ex- 



