So a few ideas popped into my head today. The first one being an Indian trader, an Indian that comes to Boston every once in a while to trade goods, no silver, just an item for an item. Maybe he/she could have a set schedule on the times they would be in Boston, and the things they trade change between each visit.
Another thought I had was the Connecticut River, the reason behind the name being Providence(The Capital of Rhode Island) is not to far off from Connecticut. The river could be used as a second major water way (the other being the coastline). It would run from north to south, allowing faster travel inland. In a sense it would be a highway, and when there's a highway there are highway men(thieves, robbers, raiders etc..) an example: A group of thieves just chill out on the river or on the edge with a few muskets, just waiting for someone to pass by, hiding behind trees, and all of the sudden the unknown traveler is halted in their path by a lone boatman fishing the river, they strike up a conversation and the next thing you know 4 guys with muskets come out of nowhere and blow the guy out of the water (quite literally). I just think it could add another fun factor and more danger to the game. I know plenty of people use Ender or the one that starts with an L (cant remember the name, sorry, but your client rocks) and have the radar, but none the less, could be fun.
The last thought I had was a log raft, made out of felled trees and a few ropes, its made solely for transporting a large quantity of cut logs on a river. Say you have felled every tree in 10 miles, and you just gotta have more and don't have the skills to plant new trees or you are just to damn lazy for that, and you have a river near by. You could hop into your canoe with a few rope in your inventory and travel a bit till you reach an untouched forest and there you can chop down say 20 trees, build your log raft(was thinking you would have to build it in the shallows of the water) and ride it back to your base. It would move quite slow, but much better then carting only 8 at a time, the raft could say, double that? and you wouldn't have to worry about collision like you do with a cart. It would also make you an easy target for anyone who happens to stumble upon you floating down the river.
Let me know what you guys think. Or build off those thoughts.