From the balcony of the coffee-house the Captain bowed while the crowds
cheered him. Finally a committee escorted him to the foot of Wall
Street, where he embarked in a pilot-boat which took him to his ship.
Another committee, with far less ceremony, escorted Captain Chambers to
the same boat, and the two captains sailed away.

[Illustration: Ferry-House on East River, 1746, from an Old Print.]

Even before this had happened in New York, the citizens of Boston had
dumped a cargo of tea into their harbor, and the British Parliament had
closed the port of Boston; which meant that no ships were permitted to
sail in or out of it. By this it was hoped to stop all business in
Boston, and really it did put an end to a great part of it. And General
Thomas Gage, who now had charge of the British troops in America,
undertook to see that the orders of the King were properly enforced.

This closing of the port of Boston aroused the thirteen British colonies
in America. After a great deal of letter-writing it was decided to have
men from each of these colonies meet and talk matters over. In September
of this year (1774) they met in Philadelphia. At this meeting, which was
called the First Continental Congress, it was decided that laws were
made in England that were unjust to America, that the colonists objected
to taxes that were fixed by Parliament and would buy no more goods from
England while a tax was upon them; and that they objected to the support
of a large British army in the colonies.

And this First Continental Congress sent a petition to King George III.,
saying that the unjust laws should be done away with.

How the King received this petition is soon told.