Samuel Leech > Quotes

“While we lay in Boston harbor, Thanksgiving Day arrived. Some of our Salem men inquired if I was not going home to keep thanksgiving, for they all supposed I belonged to Salem. What they meant by “thanksgiving,” was a mystery to me, but, dissembling my ignorance, I obtained leave, determined to learn what it meant. The result of my visit was the idea that Thanksgiving Day, was one in which the people crammed themselves with turkeys, geese, pumpkin-pies, &c.: for, certainly, that was the chief business of the day, so far as I could perceive. With too many people, I believe that this is the leading idea associated with the day even now.”
― Samuel Leech, A Voice from the Main Deck: Being a Record of the Thirty Years' Adventures of Samuel Leech