We Are One: This 1776 landscape scene, published in the maritime atlas The Atlantic Neptune, depicts Boston as it appeared to a person approaching the town from the south. Shepherds tend their flocks in the foreground, while the Shawmut Peninsula rises from the marshy flats in the background. Numerous church spires and the "beacon" on Beacon Hill are clearly visible on Boston’s skyline. Despite being an important trading port and one of the most populous cities in America, colonial Boston was small compared to a metropolis like London. Boston appears as a little coastal town surrounded by a vast wilderness.