Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr. writes in his journal on 1 April:
I had a nice sail on the river yesterday after school. Messrs John and Henry T. rowed and Jesse [Harding] and I were passengers. We went up the river against the wind and then sailed down to the monument where we got out with the intention of all embarking again, but Mr. J and Jesse being near the monument and Mr H. and I near the boat we jumped in and went across to the abutment of the former bridge on the opposite side. I suppose that we should have come back for them if they had staid but they went off with the sail which we had left on the bank. Mr. H. rowed up the river a little way and got out. We had not the keys of the boat and should have been obliged to leave her without being securely fastened or have hauled her up on the shore if Joseph had not come down with the keys. He got two wet feet for his pains. Mr. T had sent for some clams and in the evening Mr. J. and I had a fire in our room to cook some clams for our private eating. We roasted a few and then he went down and got some in a nondescript vessel which they call a monkey to boil. We eat the clams and then he put a little butter into the broth to make it taste good and brought up two hunks of brown bread crust to eat. But alas! as we were sipping the broth out of clamshells (the monkey being put on two sticks of wood across our knees) Mr. John got something in his throat which made him cough and shake so that it upset all on to the floor. We wiped up what little went on the carpet and gave the rug a beat to make it dry.
We soon went to bed after this and I dreamed of eating clams.
(MS, “E. Q. Sewall Diary,” Sewall Family papers. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.)
