I dressed myself in the costume of an Indian,equipped with a small hatchet, which I andmy associates denominated the tomahawk,with which, and a club, after having paintedmy face and hands with coal dust in the shopof a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's wharf,where the ships lay that contained the tea.When I first appeared in the street afterbeing thus disguised, I fell in with many whowere dressed, equipped and painted as I was,and who fell in with me and marched inorder to the place of our destination. When we arrived at the wharf, there werethree of our number who assumed an authority to direct our operations, to which wereadily submitted. They divided us into threeparties, for the purpose of boarding the threeships which contained the tea at the sametime. The name of him who commanded thedivision to which I was assigned was LeonardPitt. The names of the other commanders Inever knew. We were immediately orderedby the respective commanders to board allthe ships at the same time, which wepromptly obeyed. The commander of thedivision to which I belonged, as soon as wewere on board the ship, appointed me boatswain, and ordered me to go to the captainand demand of him the keys to the hatchesand a dozen candles. I made the demand accordingly, and the captain promptly replied,and delivered the articles; but requested meat the same time to do no damage to the shipor rigging. We then were ordered by ourcommander to open the hatches and take outall the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded toexecute his orders, first cutting and splittingthe chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of thewater. In about three hours from the time wewent on board, we had thus broken andthrown overboard every tea chest to be foundin the ship, while those in the other shipswere disposing of the tea in the same way, atthe same time. We were surrounded byBritish armed ships, but no attempt was madeto resist us. We then quietly retired to our severalplaces of residence, without having any conversation with each other, or taking any measures to discover who were our associates; nordo I recollect of our having had the knowledge of the name of a single individual concerned in that affair, except that of LeonardPitt, the commander of my division, whom Ihave mentioned. There appeared to be anunderstanding that each individual shouldvolunteer his services, keep his own secret,and risk the consequence for himself. No disorder took place during that transaction, andit was observed at that time that the stillestnight ensued that Boston had enjoyed formany months.

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