Island Wilderness
Imagining the Early Years of Martha's Vineyard
In the summer of 1671, at the age of seventy-eight, Governor Thomas Mayhew, founder and sole proprietor of Martha's Vineyard, sailed under escort to Fort James at the tip of Manhattan to explain why he had ignored all taxes, military direction and royal inquiries for twenty-five years, balancing the authority of kings against the idea of democracy, and his official duties against the wild beauty of the new world. (The map of old Indian trails below is based on materials at the Martha's Vineyard Museum, and on my own exploration.)
