SALEM AND BOSTON

About the only things we knew about Salem before we sailed in were it's sad history of witch trials immortalised in Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible" and its importance as a shipping centre in early American trade. It is a delightful spot which has escaped the total detruction of early houses and mass redevelopments of many cities. We arrived just before Halloween and the witches were out in full force. We walked past many little stores offering Tarot readings, seances and fortune telling but manged to escape unscathed and unread. We toured a few historic houses, and visited a couple of museums but the event which remains indellibly etched in our minds was a dramatic recreation of the arrest and preliminary hearing of Bridget Bishop in 1692. We saw her arrested in the street and dragged screaming into the old town hall where we the audience were presented the testimonies of witchcraft that were actually levelled against her and invited to decide whether she should be committed for trial. Apart from a character that rivalled Shakeseare's Shrew we were unimpressed with the evidence presented against her. It lacked logic, reeked of superstitious inuendo and would hopefully be laughed at in any modern court. At the end of the testimonies the audience was asked by show of hands to indicate whether she should be committed to trial. A very slender majority decided she should not be sent to trial. The audience sat in silence as the actress playing the role of Bridget stepped forward and thanked us for not sending her to trial and then proceeded to explain that in 1692 the decision was different, she was tried, found guilty and was the first of 19 people hung for witchcraft in Salem. How far have we really progressed? Witch hunts are still with us! There are still many who want to declare others guilty until they are proven innocent. Enough preaching!

The weather continued in a foul mood so with our boat safely on a mooring we travelled by train into Boston. Bruce kept walking around reciting,

"Here's to good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the Cod,
Where the Cabots speak only to the Cabots
And the Lodges speak only to God."

We experienced no such implied snobbery and saw no sign of the Cabot and Lodge families. We were fortunate to have as a walking tour guide a professor of American History who did his best to remove the facts of the American Revolution from the myths and mysty eyed idealism that so often surround them in American popular beliefs. He drew a very interesting parallel between the American Revolution and Vietnam and suggested we still need to learn the lessons of our history.

We only had one day in Boston and spent the afternoon on the water with a tour of the harbour and the oldest ship still on the active list of the American Fleet. "The Constituion" was built in 1750s and is lovingly maintained as a working museum of that era, a truly magnificent vessel