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the quaker colonies-第25部分

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s have been worked a second and some a third time; since located。 At the present time '1857' there is not an acre of original growth of swamp standing; having all passed away before the resistless sway of the speculator or the consumer。〃 Beesley's 〃Sketch of Cape May〃 p。 197。


The great forest has long since been lumbered to death。 The pines were worked for tar; pitch; resin; and turpentine until for lack of material the industry passed southward through the Carolinas to Florida; exhausting the trees as it went。 The Christmas demand for holly has almost stripped the Jersey woods of these trees once so numerous。 Destructive fires and frequent cutting keep the pine and oak lands stunted。 Thousands of dollars' worth of cedar springing up in the swamps are sometimes destroyed in a day。 But efforts to control the fires so destructive not only to this standing timber but to the fertility of the soil; and attempts to reforest this country not only for the sake of timber but as an attraction to those who resort there in search of health or natural beauty; have not been vigorously pushed。 The great forest has now; to be sure; been partially cultivated in spots; and the sand used for large glass…making industries。 Small fruits and grapes flourish in some places。 At the northern end of this forest tract the health resort known as Lakewood was established to take advantage of the pine air。 A little to the southward is the secluded Brown's Mills; once so appealing to lovers of the simple life。 Checked on the east by the great forest; the West Jersey Quakers spread southward from Salem until they came to the Cohansey; a large and beautiful stream flowing out of the forest and wandering through green meadows and marshes to the bay。 So numerous were the wild geese along its shores and along the Maurice River farther south that the first settlers are said to have killed them for their feathers alone and to have thrown the carcasses away。 At the head of navigation of the Cohansey was a village called Cohansey Bridge; and after 1765 Bridgeton; a name still borne by a flourishing modern town。 Lower down near the marsh was the village of Greenwich; the principal place of business up to the year 1800; with a foreign trade。 Some of the tea the East India Company tried to force on the colonists during the Revolution was sent there and was duly rejected。 It is still an extremely pretty village; with its broad shaded streets like a New England town and its old Quaker meeting house。 In fact; not a few New Englanders from Connecticut; still infatuated with southern Jersey in spite of the rebuffs received in ancient times from Dutch and Swedes; finally settled near the Cohansey after it came under control of the more amiable Quakers。 There was also one place called after Fairfield in Connecticut and another called New England Town。

The first churches of this region were usually built near running streams so that the congregation could procure water for themselves and their horses。 Of one old Presbyterian Church it used to be said that no one had ever ridden to it in a wheeled vehicle。 Wagons and carriages were very scarce until after the Revolution。 Carts for occasions of ceremony as well as utility were used before wagons and carriages。 For a hundred and fifty years the horse's back was the best form of conveyance in the deep sand of the trails and roads。 This was true of all southern Jersey。 Pack horses and the backs of Indian and negro slaves were the principal means of transportation on land。 The roads and trails; in fact; were so few and so heavy with sand that water travel was very much developed。 The Indian dugout canoe was adopted and found faster and better than heavy English rowboats。 As the province was almost surrounded by water and was covered with a network of creeks and channels; nearly all the villages and towns were situated on tidewater streams; and the dugout canoe; modified and improved; was for several generations the principal means of communication。 Most of the old roads in New Jersey followed Indian trails。 There was a trail; for example; from the modern Camden opposite Philadelphia; following up Cooper's Creek past Berlin; then called Long…a…coming; crossing the watershed; and then following Great Egg Harbor River to the seashore。 Another trail; long used by the settlers; led from Salem up to Camden; Burlington; and Trenton; going round the heads of streams。 It was afterwards abandoned for the shorter route obtained by bridging the streams nearer their mouths。 This old trail also extended from the neighborhood of Trenton to Perth Amboy near the mouth of the Hudson; and thus; by supplementing the lower routes; made a trail nearly the whole length of the province。

As a Quaker refuge; West Jersey never attained the success of Pennsylvania。 The political disturbances and the continually threatened loss of self…government in both the Jerseys were a serious deterrent to Quakers who; above all else; prized rights which they found far better secured in Pennsylvania。 In 1702; when the two Jerseys were united into one colony under a government appointed by the Crown; those rights were more restricted than ever and all hopes of West Jersey becoming a colony under complete Quaker control were shattered。 Under Governor Cornbury; the English law was adopted and enforced; and the Quakers were disqualified from testifying in court unless they took an oath and were prohibited from serving on juries or holding any office of trust。 Cornbury's judges wore scarlet robes; powdered wigs; cocked hats; gold lace; and side arms; they were conducted to the courthouse by the sheriff's cavalcade and opened court with great parade and ceremony。 Such a spectacle of pomp was sufficient to divert the flow of Quaker immigrants to Pennsylvania; where the government was entirely in Quaker hands and where plain and serious ways gave promise of enduring and unmolested prosperity。

The Quakers had altogether thirty meeting houses in West Jersey and eleven in East Jersey; which probably shows about the proportion of Quaker influence in the two Jerseys。 Many of them have since disappeared; some of the early buildings; to judge from the pictures; were of wood and not particularly pleasing in appearance。 They were makeshifts; usually intended to be replaced by better buildings。 Some substantial brick buildings of excellent architecture have survived; and their plainness and simplicity; combined with excellent proportions and thorough construction; are clearly indicative of Quaker character。 There is a particularly interesting one in Salem with a magnificent old oak beside it; another in the village of Greenwich on the Cohansey farther south; and another at Crosswicks near Trenton。

In West Jersey near Mount Holly was born and lived John Woolman; a Quaker who became eminent throughout the English speaking world for the simplicity and loftiness of his religious thought as well as for his admirable style of expression。 His 〃Journal;〃 once greatly and even extravagantly admired; still finds readers。 〃Get the writings of John Woolman by heart;〃 said Charles Lamb; 〃and love the early Quakers。〃 He was among the Quakers one of the first and perhaps the first really earne
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