gave rise to it, so far as they can be collected from
the
Boston Narrative (to which I refer the reader
for them) and those printed at the end of this
tract, seem to have been as follows:
On Friday the 2d of March last, between ten
and eleven o'clock in the forenoon, as three sol-
diers of the 29th regiment of foot were passing
by Mr. John Gray's rope-walk in a peaceable
and inoffensive manner, one Green a rope-maker,
who was at work there, asked one of the soldiers
whether he wanted work; to which the soldier
answered that he did;
"Then," said Green
"you shall go and clean my necessary-house."
(See Samuel Bostwick's evidence, No.23.) This
insult provoked the soldier to use a good deal of
ill language in return, and to swear that he
would have satisfaction for it. Upon this one of
the rope-makers, named Nicholas Ferriter, came
up to him and tripped up his heels, and, after
he was fallen, another of them, named John
Wilson, took his sword from him, (which, Fer-
riter says, appeared naked under his coat,) and
carried it into the rope-walks. The soldier then
went to Green's barrack, and in about twenty
minutes returned with about eight or nine more
soldiers, armed with clubs, who began with
three or four men in Mr. Gray's warehouse by
asking them why they had insulted the soldier
aforesaid? These men immediately called out for
assistance, upon which they were joined by a
number of rope-makers, with whose help they
beat off the soldiers. The soldiers upon this re-