CHAPTER XXXIV.
Master Raymond Goes Again to Boston.
Master Raymond had agreed to keep his friend Joseph Putnam informed by letter of his movements--for there had been a postal system established a number of years before through the Massachusetts colony--but of course he had to be very careful as to what he put upon paper; the Puritan official mind not being over-scrupulous as to the means it took of attaining its ends.
He had brought excellent letters to persons of the highest character in Boston, and had received invitations from many of them to make his home in their houses--for the Boston people of all classes, and especially the wealthy, obeyed the Scriptural injunction, and were "given to hospitality;" which I believe is true to the present day.

But Master Raymond, considering the errand he was on, thought it wisest to take up his abode at an Inn--lest he might involve his entertainers in the peril attending his unlawful but righteous designs.

So he took a cheery room at the Red Lion, in the northern part of the town, which was quite a reputable house, and convenient for many purposes not the least being its proximity to the harbor, which made it a favorite resort for the better class of sea-captains.
Calling around upon the families to which he had presented letters on his first visit, immediately after his arrival in the colony, he speedily established very pleasant social relations with a good many very different circles.

And he soon was able to sum up the condition of affairs in the town as follows: First, there was by far the most numerous and the ruling sect, the Puritans.

The previous Governor, shut out by King James, Sir Edmund Andros, had been an Episcopalian; but the present one sent out on the accession of William and Mary, Sir William Phips, was himself a Puritan, sitting under the weekly teachings of the Reverend Master Cotton Mather at the North church.
Then there was an Episcopal circle, composed of about four hundred people in all, meeting at King's Chapel, built about three years before, with the Reverend Master Robert Ratcliffe as Rector.
Besides these, there was a small number of Quakers, now dwelling in peace, so far as personal manifestations were concerned, being protected by the King's mandate.