He does not
seem to have prospered except in winning respect, for when he died his
funeral charges were paid by the public. We learn from one of his letters
that John Winthrop, Jr., had a negro (presumably a slave) at Paquanet,
for he says that a mad cow there "had almost spoiled the neger & made him
ferfull to tend the rest of the cattell." That such slaves must have been
rare, however, is plain from his constant complaints about the difficulty
of procuring "help," some of which we have already quoted. His spelling
of the word "ferfull" shows that the New England pronunciation of that
word had been brought from the old country. He also uses the word
"creatures" for kine, and the like, precisely as our farmers do now.
There is one very comical passage in a letter of the 2nd of August, 1660,
where he says: "There hath been a motion by some, the chief of the town,
(New London) for my keeping an ordinary, or rather under the notion of a
tavern which, _though it suits not with my genius_, yet am almost
persuaded to accept for some good grounds." Tinker's modesty is most
creditable to him, and we wish it were more common now. No people on the
face of the earth suffer so much as we from impostors who keep
inconveniences, "under the notion of a tavern," without any call of
natural genius thereto; none endure with such unexemplary patience the
superb indifference of inn-keepers, and the condescending inattention of
their gentlemanly deputies.
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