The persecuted Quakers were naturally drawn to the boasted
freedom of the New World, but when Anne Austin and Mary Fisher,
representatives of this fellowship, landed at Boston from
Barbados in 1656, they were promptly locked in jail lest they
might proclaim their heresies to the curious crowd that gath
ered around them. A council pronounced their doctrines
blasphemous; their books were burned and they themselves
confined under hard cir cumstances for five months, until the
ship they had come in was ready to return them to Bar bados.
Later these Quaker missionaries found a more cordial welcome at
the hands of the Mohammedans in Turkey than they did at the -
hands of the Christian Puritans in setts. However, the
contention of John Fiske, that the Puritans had more at stake
than the Mohammedans, deserves to be considered in this
connection. Following these two women came eight Quakers from
London, who were promptly arrested and special laws were passed
that they might be disposed of. The penalties afixed in thes